Red Like Grimm Roses
by KeySlinger09
Summary: Ruby Rose, age 15, has been accepted into Beacon Academy, where she will learn all that she needs to achieve her dream of becoming a professional Huntress. However, as she progessess on her journey, she will have many demons to face. Those in the outside world, and the one that lingers within. Out of the two, which will grant Ruby the most hardship? And will she survive it?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi all, Keyslinger09 here with another story for you to read, review and think of it as you will. Hopefully in a positive way, but, your choice.**

 **This story was actually a challenge that was set up by one 'Keyboardklutz', another User on Fanfiction. I thought it looked super fun to right, so I accepted. So, now it will be your job to give a read, and leave your thoughts so that I can continue to keep writing. And, as for the story itself, i'll only reveal that it will remain linked to the cannon, but the other stuff to be added... well, you'll see as i go along, so don't forget to review.**

 **Right, with that out of the way, let's get goin'!**

"Oh yeah! Come and get it!"

The City of Vale. One of the most popular cities in the world of Remnant. It wasn't as advanced in technology as Atlas, or as exotic and adventurous as the Kingdom of Vacuo, but the city which was named after its own city had its own charm that brought many people to the city.

It was Summer break, or more accurately, the second last week of Summer break. Most children would be groaning about having to go back, not looking forward to the days of writing on pieces of paper and listening to boring teachers.

… Well, that was the case for most kids and teens.

There were other schools that provided more… unique and adventurous training, otherwise known as the Combat Schools. These schools were set up to teach those who were keen on becoming Huntsmen and Huntresses, the protectors of the world, so that they could move up to the schools that were the essentials when it came to becoming Remnant's guardians.

After graduating from one of the only four Huntsmen Academies, these youths would be able and ready to take on any threat that came their way. While criminals and emergencies were important to help stop, the main enemy of any Huntsman were as clear as day.

The Creatures of Grimm. Manifestations of darkness and negativity, existing as long as man itself, even longer as some believe it to be. It was the job of these Huntsmen and Huntresses to fight against the Grimm and keep them safe from harm. Armed with their weaponry and Dust, crystallized forms of elemental energy that is used from power sources to military ammunition, they take the fight to the creatures of darkness.

The life of this world's protectors was hard enough. However, one Huntress in training was having another form of difficulty added onto her plate.

A girl with black hair with Red highlights, silver eyes and pale skin was currently slicing down targets, each one shaped like the wolf-like Grimm known as 'Beowolves', each one easily destroyed by the girl. Normally, these targets were supposed to be incredibly durable, so as to make sure that they can still be used.

Nevertheless, they proved to be nothing more than delicate when against the girl's weapon of choice, an enormous red scythe, looking both elegant, advanced and _very_ painful.

After all the targets before her were sliced down, the girl spun the enormous weapon in her hand, before the scythe itself folded into a more compact and portable form. She looked around the area, seeing the mess she had made, soon grinning at her success.

"Alright. I am SOOO amazing." Ruby said, folding her arms and full of pride at her work.

"And a bit reckless."

Ruby jumped high into the air, the sudden voice startling her. She turned around, seeing a man with short, blond hair, blue eyes, a light tan and light facial hair on his face. He wore a button shirt, gloves, cargo shorts and sandals, as well as a pauldron on his shoulder.

He also had his arms folded and had a grin on his face. "You know, I was supposed to bring those targets back to Signal when the year started again." He said.

At that, Ruby froze, looking like a child that had been caught taking a cookie from the cupboard… which admittedly had happened to Ruby an awful lot. The mini reaper scratched the back of her head and gave a nervous chuckle.

"My bad, Dad." She said, lowering her arm. "I guess I just got a bit carried away. Using Crescent Rose has been pretty helpful with…"

Ruby trailed off, the thought she was trying to repress coming back to the surface.

Ruby's father, Taiyang, saw Ruby's expression turn to one of sadness and worry. He walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"What's on your mind, kid?" he asked her.

Ruby was reluctant to answer at first, knowing that to some it would be a bit of a silly subject. However, knowing her dad, it would only be a matter of time before he figured it out.

"Well… It's just…" Ruby took in one more deep breath. "I… with Yang going to Beacon soon… I'm afraid that I'm going to be alone." She finally admitted.

Tai nodded in understanding. While Ruby had several friends in Signal, she wasn't really able to get that close with them. During her time in Signal, it was Yang, her sister, that was there for Ruby during her time in Signal. Without her sister to support her, it seems like she was going to struggle.

"Ruby, don't worry. Just because Yang's going to Beacon, it doesn't mean that she's vanishing from Remnant. We can still get in contact with her." He said. "Besides, at least this will give you the opportunity to bond with your other friends, right?"

"…" Ruby's face was still one of worry, not comfortable at the idea of trying to make Friends to the degree that she could talk to them about her problems like with Yang. What if something happened, making a mistake that drove them away. It was making her even more nervous just by thinking about it.

What if… they found about her secret.

"Ruby?"

The scarlet reaper looked back towards her father, seeing a look of worry on his face as well. She widened her eyes with surprise, followed by frantically waving his arms up and down.

"GAH! Dad, don't get worried!" she exclaimed. "I… you're right, I- I guess that I'm a little worried about being alone in Signal."

She pulled her father into a hug. "But… but I'll do my best to make more friends, if it helps you."

"It's not about me." Tai pointed out. "it's about finding someone you can rely on. Someone who can help you when you need it, and who you would help just the same." He said.

"… That would be nice." Ruby said, though part of her wasn't sure if that was possible for her.

"There, you see?" Tai said, pulling out of the hug and rubbing the top of Ruby's head. "Now, I'm heading into the kitchen. How about some cookie-dough ice cream?"

At that, Ruby's eyes began sparkling. "YAAAY!" she yelled, jumping into the air, soon landing back on the ground. "With some strawberry?"

"Count on it!" Tai yelled before speeding back into the house.

Ruby was about to enter the house, keen on the taste of strawberry and cookie dough ice cream. A flavor that always seemed to appeal to her. However, before she was able to take a single step, she suddenly felt a chill go down her back. At the same time, she felt a build up of adrenaline going through her system.

She felt fear when she realized what was happening.

To relieve this feeling, Ruby quickly unfolded her scythe and slashed the air upwards, creating a shock wave so powerful that it traveled farther than the human eye could see, slicing a couple of clouds in the process.

After that impossible display of strength, Ruby glared upwards, the silver in her eyes briefly flashing red in the process.

Thankfully, the eyes returned to their original color, and no one seemed to notice Ruby's attack.

"Ruby! You comin' in?" Tai called out.

Ruby turned back, her trademark grin having returned. "On the way!" she said before dashing into the house, a trail of rose petals appearing behind her.

….

"So, what are we gonna do today, Rubes?"

After Taiyang and Ruby ended up eating more strawberry and cookie dough ice-cream (which left both with severe tummy aches), who had ended up returning to the house?

None other than Yang Xiao Long, the elder of the two sisters, having returned from visiting a friends house for the day. Though, she was initially surprised when she entered through the front door, finding both her family members in sugar induced comas.

However, knowing those two, it was best to just let them sleep it off, while she went into the sitting room and played some video games to pass the time. Eventually, the two managed to wake up, surprisingly in good health.

After Yang filled them in on her visit, to which Taiyang was thankful that nothing bad or indecent happened, Yang suddenly felt the feeling to head out into the city of Vale. To some, it would be bewildering that someone would keep going out after having a busy day so far. However, it was very common in the Xiao Long household, as Yang had a fondness for enjoying life as much as she could, and would try to fit in as much fun as she could in one day.

Tai had managed to convince Ruby to join her as well. Ruby had originally planned to work on her scythe for the rest of the day, hoping to make some improvements that she was planning on for a while.

Then again, there was a new weapons magazine she wanted to read, and it was made available yesterday. So, in the end, she decided to join the elder sister.

Now in the city, Yang walked ahead of Ruby, showing off her long, golden blond hair, lilac eyes and pale skin, she wore an orange bandanna, bikers jacket, yellow shirt that had a flame-like symbol sewn in, short shirts, a belt, fingerless gloves and combat boots. She seemed to look forward to the day.

Ruby looked around, thinking about Yang's question. "Um… that's a good question." She said, placing an index on her chin. After a few seconds, an idea popped into her mind.

"Let's head to the arcade!" the scarlet reaper exclaimed.

"Didn't we do that last week?" Yang asked with a raised eyebrow. She knew her sister was as fond of video games as her, but it would get boring if that was all they did.

"True… but they didn't have 'Ninja Slayer 3' last week, did they?" Ruby pointed out, her eyes suddenly sparkling with anticipation.

This caught the brawler's attention. "What!? No way! That was supposed to come out next week!" she said, the surprise as clear as day in her voice.

"I KNOW! It was AWESOME when I saw it." Ruby replied. "Didn't play it yet, though. Had to pick up parts for Crescent Rose."

Yang put her hands behind her head and grinned at her younger sibling. "Well, let's get going!" she said, clearly looking forward to playing that particular game

With that, Ruby and Yang raced over to the Vale shopping mall, where they found their favorite video arcade. They soon got stuck into the new game. It was a two-player fighting game, one that proved incredibly enjoyable for the sisters.

As they played, Yang was surprised at how well Ruby was doing. Usually, when it came to fighting games, Ruby always had difficulty beating Yang. in fact, ishe lost so much that it would be considered comical. Though the brawler was the video game master of the house anyway, so it made sense. Much to her surprise, however, she saw that Ruby had been improving. It was like her own reflexes had improved, and she seemed to register stuff more easily.

Given that Ruby had been learning how to wield a scythe, one would expect that she was improving in those areas due to having to master such a dangerous weapon. Yang, on the other hand, suspected that there was more to it than that. Not that she was going to push it, else Ruby wouldn't be as keen to share anything.

After they finished, both were talking about the game. Clearly, they had enjoyed it.

"Damn, girl. You've gotten better." Yang noted.

"Yeah. We actually tied with that last round." Ruby noted, before forming a pout look on her face. "I would've had you if I had more time."

Yang gave a slight laugh. "Sure, keep telling yourself that."

After that, both sisters couldn't help but laugh out loud. A number of passer-by's looked at them strangely but the sisters couldn't care less.

After the laughter faded, the sound of a scroll ringing rang through the air, prompting Ruby to check hers, while Yang pulled out her scroll, seeing that it was their father. She answered an checked to see what was up. After saying goodbye, she hung up and turned to Ruby.

"Sorry Rubes. Dad's got something going on and needs my help." She said, placing the scroll back into her pocket.

At that, Ruby rushed up to Yang and clung onto her tightly, a stream of comical tears flowing down her face.

"OOOH NO! PLEASE, oh dearest sister of mine, please don't go!" Ruby begged, her voice now a lot more dramatic than usual.

Yang peeled her off and rubbed the top of her head. "Chill out, sis." She said. "You wanna head back too?"

Ruby was about to answer when her eyes caught the site of the nearby Dust store, 'From Dust Till Dawn', where the owner seemed to be wheeling in…

"NEW WEAPON MAGAZINES!" Ruby yelled, her eyes sparkling, followed by dashing towards the Dust store, leaving behind a trail of rose petals as she did so. Yang was momentarily stunned from the surprise, but soon recovered and shook her head, thinking she should've anticipated this action.

"Guess I'll be seeing you around." Yang said out loud, before walking over towards the docks.

Ruby, meanwhile, had dashed into the shop, practically drooling when she saw the more recent issues of 'Weapons' magazine. Realizing this, she quickly wiped the drool from her mouth and picked up a copy. As she flicked through the pages, she realized that she would be a while. As such, she delved into her pockets and pulled out, surprisingly, a pair of headphones.

"Oh yeah, this is gonna be _gooood_." She said to herself, putting on the headphones and indulging herself in the latest weapon news.

….

Time had flown for Ruby, having read most of the magazines that had been placed on the rack. She had even gotten some inspirations for the Crescent Rose, more specifically the rifle mode. Needless to say, Ruby was having an enjoyable time, whilst listening to 'This Will be the Day', by Casey Lee Williams.

In fact, she was so engrossed in her reading, she didn't notice when a man with red hair entering the shop, dressed in a white coat, black pant and dress shoes, bowler hat, carrying a cane and followed by a group of armed thugs.

The man in the bowler hat leaned up against the counter, focusing his gaze on the elderly shopkeeper.

"Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a dust shop open _this_ late at night?" he asked the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper was so panicked, his speech began to waver. "P-Please, just take my Lien and go-"

It was then that the criminal shushed him gently. "Calm down, we're not here for your money." He said reassuringly. He then turned to the thugs behind him. "Grab the Dust."

With that, the thugs pulled out canisters, marching over to the refined dust containers, filling their canisters to the brim with the material.

The criminal leader then placed a case on the counter, opening up for the shopkeeper to see. "Clean and uncut, please." He said.

As the shopkeeper reluctantly gave him the dust crystals, one of the thugs had noticed that someone else was in the store. He stormed over and pointed the tip of his blade towards the person in question.

"Hey, kid. Put your hands where I can see 'em!." He yelled at this person.

This brought no response from the person in the hood, much to his annoyance.

"Hey, put your hands in the air!" he said, storming over to this person. "You got a death wish or something!?" he finished, pulling down the hood of this person, revealing it to be a young girl with head phone, black and red hair, and silver eyes.

…

Ruby was surprised when her hood was pulled down, even more when she saw a man with a black suit and red glasses. With an irate look on his face. He pointed towards his ear, trying to get the girl to remove her headphones.

Ruby placed them around her neck, curious to see what the man had to say. "Yes?"

"I said put your hands in the air." He said to her. "NOW!"

Ruby raised an eyebrow in confusion, and mild curiosity. "Are you… robbing me?" she asked.

"YES!"

Ruby's eyes quickly darted to the side, her ears somehow picking up on the faint sounds of the shopkeeper stuttering in fear.

"… oh…"

A second later, the red-haired man at the counter saw said goon flying through the air, crashing into a nearby stand. He looked over to where he was launched from, widening his eyes in surprise. He then motioned for another thug to try and subdue the threat.

As the second thug aimed a firearm at Ruby, the scarlet reaper decided now was the time to put her baby to use. With that, she pulled out her scythe in its folded form, using her strength to whack him in the face, launching him in the air and out through the store window.

' _Oops. I'll have to apologize for that later._ ' Ruby thought as she jumped after him.

From the inside, the other thugs watched as Ruby's weapon unfolded into the large and deadly Crescent Rose scythe. When it was fully formed, Ruby took a quick glance back in the shop, a confident grin on her face. She spun her scythe around before plunging it into the ground, now standing confidently and and proudly.

"…" the red-haired man was genuinely surprised, never expecting to see something like this. "Okay…" he then looked at his lackeys. "Get her!"

With that, the thugs still standing ran to take care of the mini reaper. However, Ruby wasn't going to just stand by and let them win.

"Alright… time to test it out." She said to herself.

With that, Ruby's eyes shifted color to the black and red scheme from before, dashing towards the thugs. Using her enhanced strength, she swung her scythe with enough force that it created a shock-wave that knocked the thugs off of their feet. As they were airborne, Ruby leaped into the air, skillfully spinning her scythe and whacked them one-by-one, each one creating a crater as they landed on the ground with painful levels of force. Ruby landed on the ground with a roll, looking up to see that all the thugs had been taken care of.

And she hadn't spent a single Dust round in the process, a new record.

When the fight ended, the red-haired man walked out, unhappy with how events were turning out.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were." He said sarcastically to the fallen thugs before turning to Ruby' who's eyes had returned to normal. "Well Red, I think its safe to say that this has been an eventful evening…" he pointed the cane he was holding at her. "But I'm afraid… that this is where we part ways."

The bottom of the scope the opened, turning around and making it into a scope. The criminal then pulled the trigger, firing a dust round at the girl.

Feeling her senses going into overdrive, the mini reaper's eyes flashed red, followed by dashing towards the dust round, swinging her scythe as she slashed the projectile in two. She stopped a meter away from the criminal, the outer edge of the Crescent Rose held up against his neck.

The criminal looked at Ruby, whose eyes had reverted to normal. "Well… this is unexpected." He said.

"Ready to give up?" Ruby asked, unintentionally grinning at her success.

"On the contrary." The criminal said, slowly lowering his cane. "Just need to change things up is all." He said.

Ruby was confused by what he had meant. Unfortunately, she got her answer too late, when another round was fired from his cane, hitting the ground, creating a bright flash that momentarily blinded Ruby. She held her arms up, coincidentally blocking some of the debris from hitting her face, leaping away in safety from the blast.

When she landed, she lowered her arms, seeing that her opponent had disappeared. She spun her head around, lucky enough to catch sight of the criminal climbing up a ladder.

Ruby turned her head back, seeing the shopkeeper, shaken but otherwise okay. "You alright if I go after him?" she asked, to which she received a nod.

She then zoomed after the criminal, even using the rifle mechanic of her scythe to fire a shot, using the recoil to fly up into the air and land safely on the roof.

"HEY!" she yelled at the criminal, prompting him to stop momentarily.

"… Persistent." He commented in frustration.

Quickly following was an large aircraft, hovering close to the building. A door opened at the side, allowing the criminal to hop on. He turned and sneered down at the Huntress in training.

"End of the line, red!" he yelled, pulling out a red Dust Crystal. He threw the crystal down at Ruby.

Under different circumstances, Ruby wouldn't have registered what the man was trying to do. However, Ruby was now sharper than before. She quickly aimed the rifle attachment at the Crystal, firing her own round at the crystal. The crystal collided with the bullet halfway between Ruby and the criminal, creating an explosion that forced Ruby back, but caused enough force in the air to make aircraft to lose its stability briefly.

Unfortunately, this didn't last long, as the aircraft was able to recover. Afraid that it might escape, Ruby morphed the weapon into its firearm form, trying to hit the shell, only to see that it was ineffective.

With the criminal struggling, he ran over to the cockpit, where a woman in a dress dress adorned with golden highlights was piloting the ship.

"We've got a HUNTRESS!" he yelled.

This prompted the woman to leave the cockpit and leave the controls to the criminal. With that, the woman stood where the hatch was still open. There was a shadow that covered the woman's face, the only thing from her face that was visible was a pair of glowing, ember eyes.

She held up her hand, forming a ball of fire in the center of her palm. She then shot it out, the fire expanding and flying towards the mini reaper.

"Uh oh!" Ruby cried, holding her scythe up in defense.

Expecting to be caught up in a fiery explosion, Ruby closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle. A second later, Ruby heard the sound of an explosion, prompting her to wince in fear. After a few seconds, though, she realized that she wasn't feeling any pain. She opened one eye, only to open both after seeing a new figure standing between both her and the ember-eyed woman.

This woman had blond hair tied into a bun, green eyes, dressed in a white blouse, purple cape, black pants and riding boots, and was holding a riding crop in her right hand. She had the riding crop directed at the woman in the red dress, but also up against a barrier. The purple-caped woman lowered the riding crop, thereby deactivating the barrier, and gave the ember-eyed enemy a glare that could frighten off a pack of Beowolves.

Said enemy then fired volleys of flame projectiles at the two on the roof. Several seemed to miss, striking the concrete around Ruby and the older woman. Taking the opportunity, the woman with the riding crop pointed at the debris that was formed. Said debris was then coated in a bright, purple aura, floating into the air and briskly forming into a large missile-like object.

"Whoa…" Ruby said in awe, watching the older woman masterfully manipulate the debris.

The missile was then fired at the plane, only to be obliterated after the ember-eyed enemy launched more fire attacks, blocking the missile successfully.

The didn't stop the telekinetic, who swiftly gathered the pieces of debris again and attacked again, to which the ember-eyed enemy countered again.

Seeing that she needed to help somehow, Ruby formed her scythe into its firearm mode, taking aim and taping into her darker powers. As he eyes flashed red, her vision got sharper, she was able to judge the wind resistance more accurately (which had increased slightly because of the surprising force from the Purple-caped woman and the ember-eyed enemy). With this, she fired, her eyes glued to the ember-eyed woman's knee.

The rounds struck, causing the ember-eyed woman to give way and fall to the ground. While her aura had protected her from the damage, she was still able to feel the pain from the shot. She was forced to lower her head to keep her face from showing.

Left with no other option, the ember-eyed woman focused all the energy she had into her right hand. She then shot out her palm, firing a large sphere of raging flames in their direction.

The purple-caped woman's eyes widened in surprise, not expecting the assailant to use so much power. she must be on her last legs if that's the case. Nevertheless, she activated her power in that same second, readying another barrier. However, instead, she felt dread and horror when she saw a blur of red zoom pass her.

"NO!" she cried.

"Not today, fancy lady!" Ruby exclaimed, a look of confidence on her face, her eyes momentarily flashing red again.

Ruby swung her scythe with as much force as she could muster, the blade colliding with the flames. Ruby had expected to blow the flames away with the force of the swing. Unfortunately, her scythe somehow managed to bounce off the sphere, surprising the mini reaper.

This surprise turned into pure fear when she saw the flames were continuing forward.

"OH NO!" Ruby cried out, holding her free arm up in defense against the attack, knowing that this attack would bring a world of hurt.

A split second later, Ruby was completely engulfed by the flames. Taking the opportunity, The criminal moved the aircraft, allowing them to get away.

"What a pain in the ass." He muttered as the aircraft gained speed, allowing for a better escape.

As this was happening, the purple-caped woman gaped in horror as the flames engulfed the scarlet reaper.

Using her Semblance, she created a powerful gust of wind to blow away the flames, hoping to god that the girl was alright. After the flames faded, though, the girl had seemed to had vanished along with it.

"No… no, NO!" she cried, afraid that she was already taken by the fire.

"Oh WOOOW!"

The woman turned, startled by the sudden sound of the voice, only to widen her eyes in shock after seeing the red-caped child standing before her, both unharmed and full of glee. Needless to say, the sight completely baffled her, prompting her to look back to see where Ruby was just ten seconds ago, before looking back at the young reaper.

"You're a Huntress, aren't you?" she asked, bringing her hands up to her face. "Can I have your autograph?"

…

Instead of an autograph, Ruby was brought down to the Vale police station, where she sat in one of the interrogation rooms, the purple-caped woman, who introduced herself as Glynda Goodwitch, pacing back and forth as she was giving Ruby a stern lecture.

"I hope that you realize that your actions will not be taken lightly, Young Lady. You out yourself and others in great danger."

"But they started it!" Ruby protested.

Were it up to me, you would be sent home with a pat on the back…" Goodwitch stared.

Ruby gave a hopeful smile.

"… And a SLAP on the wrist!" Goodwitch finished, slapping her riding crop against the table, making Ruby pull her hand back and yelp from fight. "However… there is someone who wishes to speak with you."

Goodwitch stepped to the side, revealing a new presence entering the room. It was a middle-aged man, white messy hair, brown eyes, wearing spectacles, a black suit and a green ascot around his neck. He was carrying a mug in one hand, and supporting a large plate of stacked cookies with another.

"Ruby Rose." He said out loud before leaning towards her. "You… Have silver eyes."

"… Um…" Ruby said, confused by this man's first words.

He stood up straight again, standing next to Goodwitch, who was showing footage of Ruby fighting outside the Dust store.

"Where did you learn to do this?" he asked seriously.

"S-Signal Academy?" Ruby tried to answer, still a little confused by what was going on.

"They taught you how to wield one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed?" the man asked in astonishment.

"Well, one teacher in particular." Ruby admitted.

"I see." The man said before placing the tray of cookies on the table.

Ruby wasn't sure about eating at first. Slowly, she picked up one of the cookies, before devouring it in one bite. Seeing that they didn't react, Ruby devoured the cookies one by one, rapidly emptying the plate.

As she ate, the man continued to speak. "It's just I've only ever seen one scythe wielder of that caliber before." She stated. "A dusty old crow."

" _Haths mo Unhle!_ " Ruby said through the remnants of cookies in her mouth. She quickly swallowed them before speaking again. "Sorry. That's my Uncle Qrow! He's a teacher at Signal." She explained. "I use to be complete garbage before he took me under his wing, now I'm all WHHHAAH, WHOOO, WHA-CHOOO!"

"So I've noticed." The man said, a small grin appearing on his face. He then took a seat in front of Ruby. "And what is an adorable girl such as yourself doing in a school designed to train warrior?"

Ruby's face morphed into one of determination. "Well, I want to be a Huntress." She answered confidently.

"You want to find monsters?" He asked, his surprise still present, but kept a blank expression on his face.

"Yeah. I only have two more years of training at Signal, and then I'm going to apply at Beacon. You see, My sister is starting there this year, and _she's_ trying to become a Huntress, and _I'm_ trying to become a Huntress, cause, well, I wanna help people. My parents always taught us to help people, so I thought 'Mmm, might as well try and make a career out of it', I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so romantic, exciting and cool-GYHA! You know!?"

"…" Both Goodwitch and the man in spectacles were silent for a moment, taking in all that the girl had said.

"Do you know who I am?" the man said, finally breaking the silence.

"You're Professor Ozpin. You're the Headmaster at Beacon." Ruby answered, much more calmly than before.

Ozpin nodded, before giving a small smile. "Hello."

"Nice to meet you." Ruby said in response, nodding her head in return.

"So, you want to come to my school?" Ozpin asked.

"More than _anything_." Ruby answered.

Ozpin looked over at Goodwitch for a moment, as if wanting her opinion in this. However, she simply rolled her eyes, seeming to not care. He then looked back at Ruby and shrugged his shoulder.

"Well okay."

"…" Ruby's mind seemed to blank for a moment. As it did, however, her face slowly morphed into an expression of pure joy. When it reached as far as it could get, with no other reaction, the Professors looked at each other with worry.

Ozpin looked back at Ruby. "I… think we broke her."

Goodwitch was about to exit the room, to call for help for the girl. However, Ruby quickly recovered, jumping out of her seat and using her Semblance to dash all around the room.

"YAAAAAY! OH MY GOSH THIS IS SO AMAZING! THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVEEEEEEER!" she yelled as she went around the room.

She was soon sitting in her chair again, giving a small cough before bowing to the Professors. "A-hem… my apologies… thank you for this opportunity." She said in a calmer, more respectful tone.

Ozpin gave the girl a nod, before turning to Goodwitch. "Glynda? Would you allow me a moment alone with Miss Rose?"

Goodwitch raised an eyebrow at the Professor. "What reason would you have-"

"Glynda."

The blond-haired Huntress saw a level of seriousness that was rarely seen in his eyes. Knowing it had to be an important matter, she nodded in confirmation.

"Very well. Please excuse me." She said before exiting the room, closing the door behind her.

After she left, Ruby looked at Ozpin, clearly confused. "Huh? Everything alright?"

"… there is a matter that I need to discuss with you, Miss Rose." Ozpin started. "One to do with your… recently acquired traits."

"U-Umm…" Ruby was genuinely unsure of what the Headmaster was talking about. However, after a few seconds, it clicked, causing Ruby to feel panic. She was about to stand up and run, but Ozpin raised his hands up and looked at her with reassurance on his face.

"Calm down. I'm not going to cause, nor shall I allow any harm come to you." He said.

"…" Ruby wasn't sure about whether or not to trust the Headmaster, after all, he was a Huntsman, and it was their duty to eliminate any… "How... how did you know?"

"Your uncle told me." Ozpin answered, receiving a startled look from Ruby. "He was concerned for your safety, and thought it best to inform me in hopes of finding an answer…" his expression then became one of concern. "And I'm afraid I must inform you that I have no answers yet."

Ruby had momentarily momentarily felt a swelling feeling of joy, having THE Professor Ozpin looking to help her. Although, that hope seemed to deflate after he finished speaking. "Oh." She said, her tone sad, but slightly comic.

Seeing this, it was Ozpin's turn to be surprised. "You don't seem that upset, Miss Rose."

Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "Well, you were trying, at least. Gotta be thankful for that." She said. "Plus, if Uncle Qrow trusts you enough to… wait…" a look of fear appeared on Ruby's face. "Are you only letting me into Beacon… to keep an eye on me?" she asked.

She had just been given a great opportunity from Ozpin to go to Beacon, thinking that it was because of her combat ability. If it was just because of the fact that she was to be kept an eye on…

"No, Miss Rose." Ozpin answered, causing the girl to perk up. "Your combat prowess is by far a greater caliber than anyone I had seen before. As such, I simply see it that you're ready to move up the ranks."

Ruby squealed in the inside, her joy now revived. However, it was short-lived, as another troubling thought occurred to Ruby.

"Professor?" she asked, gaining Ozpin's attention. "Can you be honest with me?" she asked.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "About what, my dear?"

"... Do you… see me as a threat? Am I... nothing but a monster to you?"

Ozpin's expression slowly became more serious after hearing this.

"Ruby. Tell me, if someone was in danger right now, what would you do?"

Ruby blinked in surprise from the question. "Huh? I'd, well, go help them. But wh-"

"If one of your friends and family were to seriously hurt, how would you feel?"

"W-Wh-I'd be upset. Well… more than upset actually…" a memory of a certain Huntress in a white cloak coming to mind.

Ozpin nodded in affirmation. "Ruby. A monster wouldn't go out of their way to help those in need, just as you did when engaged with those who threatened that Dust shop. Nor would a monster be concerned, nevermind heartbroken over the safty or loss of someone important to them." he explained. "The way i see it, Ruby, you are just as much a person as you were before this. You may have been burdened with a troubling curse, but you are as much a person as Myself, Glynda and those you know and love. Never forget that."

After hearing this, Ruby's lower lip began to tremble. For a while now, she was afraid that her Grimm abilities made her nothing more than a monster. An enemy of Humanity. But after hearing Ozpin's words… she couldn't be more Grateful for those words.

"… Thank you, sir." Ruby managed to say, a few tears of joy rolling down her face.

Ozpin delved into his pockets and handed her a clean handkerchief. "Your welcome, Miss Rose."

He then turned around and started walking out of the office. "I'd recommend you go home and get some rest. You're going to have a very busy schedule to keep."

Ruby formed a large grin on her face, giving Ozpin two thumbs up. "Looking forward to it!"

Chapter End

 **So, what do you all think? Was this worth reading so far? If so, remember to leave your thoughts in the review, or PM if you like, either suits me.**

 **Right, with nothing else to say, I'm off. See you later, have a great day.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Merry Christmas everyone!**

 **Sorry this took so long. Like i always say, life's always getting in the way. However. it's great to have another story updated,and it's great to see that many of you are still reading what i've put up so far, so thanks very much.**

 **Right, let's get into the story.**

Soon after Ruby had returned home to Patch, she had wasted no time in telling her dad and sister what had happened. Their reactions were, respectively, horrified, impressed, and in disbelief. They were amazed that Ruby had managed to go head to head against such dangerous people.

One of them, according to Taiyang, had been 'Roman Torchwick', one of the top-ten most wanted in the Kingdom of Vale. He was as cunning and ruthless as he was charismatic, and he would show no mercy to those that tried to stop him. After hearing this, Ruby felt a bit more disappointed at failing to stop him, but she quickly shook it off.

Then it came to her meeting with Professor Ozpin, the man himself, and the offer he made her.

After hearing this…

"Oh… My…" Taiyang started.

"GOD!" Yang finished for him, a look of glee on her face. She rushed up to Ruby, hugging her tightly with both her arms, spinning her around the living room.

"Oh, this is the best day EVER!" the blond Huntress in training said. "This is just, you know, so awesome!"

As Yang was hugging Ruby, she didn't notice her younger sister's face turning blue.

"Yang… Please… calm down…" Ruby begged as she felt her spine threatening to snap.

Thankfully, Ruby's plea was heard, as her sister instantly released Ruby, resulting in Ruby collapsing on the ground, her eyes spinning as she was recovering.

Yang gave her sister an embarrassed chuckle and scratched the back of her head. "Eh, sorry Ruby." She said. "I'm just so excited for you!"

"Well, I appreciate it, but I'm well able to be exited for all this _without_ you bending my back like a pretzel." She said, getting a small chuckle from their dad.

Yang zipped beside Ruby, wrapping one arm around her shoulder while the other was shot up towards the ceiling.

"Just think, by this time tomorrow, you'll be in the same school with loads of other people, hundreds, all of them, while not as talented as my baby sister, are cool in their own way."

"…" After hearing Yang's words, Ruby's excitement immediately fell crashing down, now replaced with a rising sense of dread. "Did you say… 'loads' of people?"

Seeing where this was going, Taiyang tried to step in. "Uh, Yang-"

"Hell yeah, I did. And when you're showing off those skills of yours to everyone, you'll be able to show them who's the boss. Maybe give them a pointer or two if you're feeling generous." Yang continued. "Imagine, crowds of people all in awe of your awesomeness… Ruby? Ruby, are you okay?"

It seems that Yang, as she continued to verbalize all her ideas of the best case scenario for Ruby, had neglected to see her sister's eyes having gone completely white, and her lips were waving like mad as she tried to form her words.

"Uuuuuhhh…" was all Ruby was able to voice, the nerves having already gotten to her.

Yang raised a hand up to her sister's face, waving lightly. Seeing no reaction, Yang then clicked her fingers in hope of getting the Rosette's attention. As she did, it get a reaction… only not the one she hoped for, as Ruby ended up falling and landing flat on her back.

"Uuughh…" Ruby continued to groan as she was haunted by the terrifying thoughts that Yang filled her head with.

Yang raised an eyebrow in confusion over what was going on. "I don't get it. I thought Ruby'd be happy about it all." She said. She then turned to her father. "What do you think's up?"

At that, Taiyang lightly pinched the bridge of his nose. "… Yang? Aren't you forgetting something?"

Yang wasn't sure as to what her father meant. She racked her brain for an answer, before it suddenly clicked with her. Slapping her forehead, she inwardly cursed.

"Oh man, I forgot about that!" she said, remembering that Ruby gets nervous in front of large crowds.

"How did you forget that?" Taiyang asked, genuinely surprised at her eldest daughter's forgetfulness. Hopefully she wouldn't be as bad when it came to her school work.

In the meantime, however, they would need to work on raising Ruby from her stress-induced coma. With any luck, they'll be able to revive her in time to help her back her stuff, and make sure she gets there on time. As he went to get some water, and while Yang tried to wake Ruby up by shaking her, the father simply shook his head with a light smile.

"Hope Oz can put up with these girls. They sure know how to make a scene." He said to himself, looking forward to his daughters attending the academy.

…..

The night before the first years were due to arrive, the man with the cane was sitting in his office, silently eyeing some paper work that he had yet to do.

Beacon academy. On of the four prestigious Huntsmen Academies designed to train the future protectors of the world. The overall structure made it seem more like a large fortress or a small castle than an actual school. Then again, they would need to take all measures necessary to make sure that they were ready for a fight, in case such a situation was to arise.

As Ozpin was staring at the pile of paper, he couldn't help but think about the girl he had met in the police station. Or rather, the dark secret that he had been informed of beforehand.

Around a few days after Ruby had been cursed with her burden, Qrow had approached him and informed him of what had happened to the girl with the scythe. Upon first hearing this, it had been the first time that he had been surprised in a long time. Although, he was more so filled with worry and concern.

As previously mentioned, Ruby had been cursed with a terrible burden, one that was reminiscent of a fate that had ensnared another he had known…

Ozpin sighed with frustration. In all honesty, he wasn't sure as to how to help Miss Rose. This was something that he had never seen done on a human before. There were so many questions that were running through his own mind one how this was possible.

However, he knew he couldn't let his own frustration get in the way. Instead, he got his thoughts together and continued with his stack of paperwork. For now, there might not be much tat he could do. For now, however, he would do as much as he can. With any luck, Ruby will at least be able to find this place a safe haven.

He was brought out of his thoughts when he heard the sound of the elevator bell ringing. He looked up, seeing the doors open to see Professor Goodwitch. She had the same facial expression as ever, scroll on hand as she was organizing some data.

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Glynda? What has you here so late?"

Goodwitch adjusted her glasses before speaking. "I came here to inform you that all the transfer papers and conditions have been finalized. Miss Rose will now be able to attend Beacon without hassle."

"No _official_ hassle, at least." Ozpin noted. While Ruby was indeed quite talented, he knew that it was going to be difficult entering a school where everyone was older, and they may view her in an unfair way.

"Indeed." Glynda added. "Though I did receive an email from one of her teachers at Signal." She said, scrolling down the screen. "Something about… 'Not accepting her having to not hand in that… 'certain', report."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "Paraphrasing?" he asked.

Glynda coughed a couple of times, surprised by a teacher's use of… 'colorful' language in a supposedly formal email.

Ozpin leaned back in his chair with a smirk on his face. "Still, now that we have all that finished, we can move onto the more important things."

Glynda nodded. "All the preparations have been made for the initiation. I'm still amazed at how well the Emerald Forest stayed standing, after all the initiations you have held in there."

"It's the best environment to test their abilities." Ozpin said. "And it's proven to be a saf…"

Glynda raised an eyebrow when she saw her boss' face falter, now looking… burdened, guilt-ridden. Then again, Glynda had already known what it was that was bothering him.

"You're thinking about Gretchen, aren't you?"

Gretchen Reinhart was an applicant for Beacon Academy many years ago. She was a talented Huntress, bright, and had a bright future ahead of her. However, as she was doing the initiation, she was killed. A dormant Deathstalker had pinned her to the ground, followed by said Deathstalker bashing into the side of a cliff. Several boulders collapsed to the ground, trapping and crushing the girl within.

To this day, Ozpin hadn't forgiven himself. Both for not having been able to help her, and because of what had happened to her brother…

The Headmaster shook his head as he brought his focus back into gear. He looked at Glynda again. "Go home, Glynda. Get some rest for tomorrow. For tomorrow, and the day after, will be incredibly important for these children."

"…" Glynda looked at her superior with concern. However, knowing him, he wouldn't say a single word about what was on his mind. As such, she relented and made her way towards the elevator, the doors slowly closing behind her upon entry.

Ozpin then lowered his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as he remembered every mistake that he had made. Each one acted as a heavy weight on his soul, weighing him down as the years passed by. He then leaned back in his chair again, tilting his head up towards the ceiling.

"… What will we have in store… this year?" he asked himself.

…..

"Oh, I can't belief my baby sister's going to Beacon with me! This is the BEST day EVER!"

The morning that Ruby and Yang had to leave, their father was practically brought to tears at the thought of his daughters growing up. Needless to say, both Ruby and Yang couldn't have been more embarrassed by the scene their father was making, especially with the amount of people who were watching. However, they decided to let him have his moment, and were sure to give him a proper goodbye hug.

The girls were also thankful that he didn't ask for a photo before they boarded the Bulhead. THAT would've been too much to handle.

Now that they were on the airship to Beacon, though, Yang had wasted no time in expressing her enthusiasm at her sister's accomplishment, which included a hug that nearly shattered the Scarlet Reaper's back.

"Please… stop." Ruby begged, out of worry for her back and her nerves.

Yang released her sister and took a step back, looking at her sister with just as much enthusiasm. "But I'm so PROUD of YOUUU!" she exclaimed.

"Really, sis. It was nothing." Ruby said back, her shoulder slumped and her expression one of worry.

"What's with you?" Yang asked, unable to understand why her sister wasn't as happy as everyone else. She had gotten into one of _the_ best schools for teaching future Huntsmen and Huntresses how to fight. Not only that, she got in two years early. There weren't many that were that talented, and yet the only one so far that proved to be so was didn't seem thrilled at all by the idea.

"You should be proud. Everyone's gonna think that you're the Bee's Knees." Yang stated.

"I don't want to be the bee's knees." Ruby replied. "I don't want to be a _nyone's_ knees, I just want to be a normal girl, with _normal_ knees."

Yang crossed her arms. "Aren't… you excited?" she asked. Her face then became one of shock as a thought occurred. "Oh man, don't tell me I scared you THAT much last night!" she screamed, causing a few stares to be sent their direction, not that the sisters noticed them.

"No, Yang, it's just…" Ruby sighed before explaining what it was, she was trying to say. "I've been moved ahead two years to get into Beacon. I don't want people to think that I'm special."

Yang walked up to her sister and wrapped an arm around her sister. "But you _are_ special." Yang said, trying to assure her.

This didn't do anything to alleviate any of the reaper's worries. " _Special… special because of 'it' maybe…_ " she thought.

She was brought out of her thoughts, though, when she saw news on the TV. She wasn't listening to what was being said, but instead focused on the picture of a familiar bowler hat-wearing criminal. Upon seeing his image, something inside Ruby seemed to get ticked off. Her eyes narrowed at the picture, her silver briefly flashing scarlet.

" _Torchwick… huh?_ she thought. She then lowered her head as she recalled that night. More specifically, the woman in the red dress. The way she had been able to use those flames… there was something strange about it. When she was hit with the full blast of flame, there was no doubt a lot of force. Had she not dodged at the last second, using the recoil from Crescent Rose to shoot up high in the sky before landing behind Goodwitch, she would've been squashed like a bug. But… the flames weren't really as hot as they should've been... at least, that's what she thought. She couldn't place her finger on it.

Ruby was then snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a new voice. She looked up and saw a holographic image of Goodwitch standing before them.

" _Hello, and welcome to Beacon_." Said the hologram.

"Who's that?" Yang asked.

" _My name is Professor Goodwitch._ "

"Oh."

The hologram continued. " _You are among the privileged few that have been selected to attend this prestigious academy. Our world is experiencing an incredible time of piece, and as fure huntsmen and huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it._ "

"She seems a lot nicer than before at the police station." Ruby said out loud.

"Huh? Sorry, Ruby. Say something?" Yang asked.

"No, nothing." Ruby answered.

" _You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now, it is our job to give you the knowledge and training needed to protect our world._ "

And with those final words, the hologram faded. Just in time for Ruby to see something of interest.

"Wow!" she said as she ran towards the window. She pressed her face up against the glass as she tried to get a better view. "Yang, I think I can see Signal from up here!" she said in excitement. "I guess home isn't so far away after all."

Yang placed a hand on her sister's shoulder. "Beacon's our home now."

The moment was interrupted when the two sisters heard someone groaning. They turned to see a boy with blond hair and dressed in white armor, looking like he was about to throw up. He ran right past them as he tried to find a place to release the contents of his stomach.

"Well… I guess the view isn't for everyone." Yang said.

"It _was_ nice while it lasted." Ruby pointed out.

The two sisters then turned their gaze back to the window, taking in the majestic sights.

"I wonder who we're going to meet?" Ruby asked. It was a half-serious question on her part, as she was afraid of what might happen if there was someone who might find out her secret and kill her for it, or worse, expose her to the world.

"I just hope they're better than vomit boy." Yang said, a couple of laughs making their escape as well.

Ruby's nose then twitched. Her sharpened sense of smell picked up on an unpleasant scent, prompting her to turn her head and see what it was.

"EW, Yang you have puke on you're shoes!" Ruby yelled.

"Gross, gross, GROSS!" Yang yelled as she tried desperately to shake off the contents of the blond knight's stomach."

"AH, Yang, get away, get away, get away!" Ruby cried.

…

A few minutes later, the Bullhead made its landing. The doors opened to let all the students out. As they poured out, the blond knight blasted through the crowd, stopping in front of a nearby trash can to puke once more, the effects of the trip having not faded yet.

"Uuurrgghh…" he sounded.

As this happened, Ruby and Yang walked up to where the campus. One can imagine their surprise when they saw, what appeared to be a large castle-like structure standing before them. Yang shaded her eyes with her hands as she looked at the magnificent structure.

"The view of Vale's got nothing on this." She said.

However' Ruby's attention was on something else entirely.

"OOOHH! Sis, LOOK! That kid's got a collapsible staff!" she yelled, only to practically drool upon seeing something else. "Ooohh… and she's got a flame sword…" she said as she seemed to float away.

Yang pulled her back by the hood, much to the young reaper's disappointment.

"Take it easy sis, they're just weapons." Yang said, hoping her sister would come to her senses.

"Just weapons!?" Ruby cried, seemingly offended. "They're an extension of ourselves, they're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool."

Yang raised an eyebrow at her sister. "Why can't you swoon over your own weapon? Aren't you happy with it?"

Ruby unfolded her scythe and rested it on her shoulder. "Of course I'm happy with Crescent Rose. But I just like seeing new ones. It's like meeting new people, only better."

"Come on, Ruby." Yang said, pulling down her sister's hood. "You should at least try to make some friends."

"But, why would I need friends when I have you?" Ruby asked, pulling down her hood.

A group of people then appeared behind Yang. "ActuallymyfriendsareherenowgottagoBYE!" and with that, Yang and her friends dashed off towards the Academy, leaving Ruby spinning in a cloud of dust.

Fortunately, Ruby was able to recover much more quickly than she would have before. However, this only gave her the opportunity to slump forward and watch her sister run off.

"… Gee… thanks, sis, you're the best." Ruby said with a deadpanned expression.

She tuned around, planning to wonder around until something of interest caught her eye. Unfortunately, she was in such a rut from being left by Yang, she didn't notice the cart full of luggage standing right by her.

"Oof!" Ruby sounded, accidentally bumping into the cart, quickly managing to catch one of the bags before it fell to the ground.

"Phew. That was clo-"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"

"EEP!" Ruby cried, accidentally causing the case to fly upwards. Before Ruby got the chance to catch it, though, another hand shot out and grabbed it by the handle. Ruby looked to see who caught it.

The girl in question seemed to be the same age as Yang, but also seemed to be the same height as herself. She had long, white hair that was tied into a ponytail, which was on the side of her head for some reason, icy blue eyes, the left one sporting a thin, vertical scar down its middle, and pale skin. She wore a white bolero jacket with red fabric on the inside over a pure white dress, knee-high boots and a necklace. She carried what seemed to be a rapier on her right hip.

"Don't you realize what this is?" this new girl asked, opening the case to reveal several vials of refined Dust. "Dust. Mined and purified by the Schnee Dust Company."

"Whoa." Ruby said, surprised that anyone would be carrying that much Dust on them at once.

The girl in white saw Ruby staring at the case, to which she assumed Ruby was just mindlessly staring at the vials.

"Are you brain dead!?" she asked, taking out one of the vials and shaking it at Ruby. "Dust! Fire! Ice! Lightning! Energy!"

Whatever the girl was saying after that was lost on Ruby, as, thanks to her sharper sense of sight, the young reaper saw that there was Dust leaking out from the seal. When she did see this, she immediately backed away.

"Huh? What's wrong with you now!?" the girl in white asked, her rudeness not fading in the slightest.

"Look, whatever your name is… do NOT move. Your life depends on it!" Ruby tried to warn her, waving her arms around widely for emphasis.

Somehow, this only worked to further anger the girl.

"Don't tell me what to d- NO!" The girl was in such fury, that when she waved the vial again, only with a quicker thrust, the seal came off of the vial, causing its contents to fall out and land on the ground. As it did, the dust reacted from the impact, creating a large explosion. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but both Ruby and the girl were still covered in ash.

The vial had flown from the girl in white's grip, flying away and landing beside another girl.

This young woman had long, black hair that hung freely, adorned with a small black bow on top, pale skin and ember eyes. She wore a monochrome coloured dress, black ribbons tied around her forearms, purple leggings and black boots.

The girl in question was reading a book as she felt the jar vial against her boot. Without taking her eyes off the pages, she crouched down and picked it up, standing upright. It was then that she looked at the vial, turning it in her hand to see the logo for the Schnee Dust Company.

"UNBELIEVABLE!"

The monochrome girl turned her head to see the girl in white screaming at Ruby.

"You just stood there and let me get blown up! You clearly saw that it was building up around me and did NOTHING!"

"That's not true!" Ruby retorted. "I told you not to move! If you just listened to me-"

"And what are you doing here anyway? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?" she asked, which worked to slightly irk Ruby.

"I-"

"This isn't your ordinary combat school, it's not just sparring and practicing. We're here to fight monsters, so… watch where you're going!" she yelled at Ruby, trying to vent out her anger.

At this point, Ruby felt a part of her had had enough with what the girl was saying. She may look like a princess, but by Oum this didn't give her the right to belittle anyone.

"HEY!" Ruby yelled, her eyes briefly flashing red (which thankfully went unnoticed by the other girl). "For the record, if you hadn't shaken that thing like a kid with a temper tantrum, there wouldn't have been a problem in the first place! Maybe you should do some growing up yourself before yelling at others to do it, princess!"

"It's Heiress, actually."

Both girls turned to see the girl in Monochrome clothing from before.

"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust company." She said.

"Hmph. Finally, some recognition." She said, sending a smug smile towards Ruby.

"The same company…" the monochrome girl continued. "Made infamous for it's controversial work methods, and _questionable_ business partners."

"What!" Weiss cried. "How dare you… the nerve!"

Ruby let out a small giggle after seeing the so-call Heiress get put in her place so easily by this mysterious stranger.

Without saying another word, Weiss snatched the vial from this girl and walked away, bringing the rest of her luggage with her. As she left, Ruby did, surprisingly, feel a little upset. One of the first people she met at the academy, and she's already gotten off on the wrong foot with her. Then again, she didn't need to be so mean. Either way, the past was the past.

"There she goes." Ruby voiced. "So, what's you're…"

Ruby had turned to regard the Monochrome girl, only to find that she had already walked off.

As this girl was walking, her ember eyes as her thoughts were briefly on the girl in the red cape. There was something about her. When she lost her temper with the Heiress, she could sense… something dark. It didn't seem to be a part of the girl, per say. It was like… a darkness was hiding within her. She couldn't place her finger on what it might be.

' _What are you?_ ' she thought. She considered going back up to the girl, but that would've drawn more attention than she would've preferred.

Back with Ruby, seeing that she was now by herself, she sunk to her knees and lied flat on her back, not liking how things were going so far on her first day.

"Welcome to Beacon." She said sarcastically.

As she began to wallow in her own pity, she then felt a new presence making itself known. She opened her eyes to see, much to her surprise, the blond-haired boy in armour who was vomiting off the side off the ship.

"Hi… I'm Jaune." He said, holding out a hand to her.

"Ruby." The scythe wielder replied. As she took his hand and he hoisted her up, she couldn't help but giggle slightly. "Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?"

….

A few minutes after their introduction, both Ruby and Jaune were now making their way down one of the walkways.

"All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a much more common thing than most people think!" he said, defending what had happened to him on the airship.

"I'm sorry, vomit boy was the first thing that came to mind." Ruby stated.

"Oh yeah, well what if I call you 'crater maker'?" he retorted.

"Hey! That explosion wasn't my fault! And that girl needs to be a lot more careful." Ruby said.

Jaune then put on a simple smile. "Well, the name's Jaune Arc. Shot, sweet, rolls off the tongue, ladies love it." He said with confidence.

"Do they?" Ruby asked with a hint of skepticism.

"Well… they will… at least I hope they will, well, my mom always… eh…" he eventually sighed in defeat.

Ruby gave a small chuckle at his awkwardness. It was good to see that she wasn't the only one, at least. After a moment of silence, she decided to speak.

"So… I've got this." She said, unfolding her scythe and sticking it into the ground.

"WHOA!" he voiced, surprised by the weapon. "I-Is that a scythe?"

"It's also a high-impact, customizable sniper rifle." Ruby explained.

"Eh, what?"

"It's also a gun."

"Oh."

Ruby put her scythe away before saying "So, what's your weapon like?"

"Huh?" Jaune asked before he registered what she said. "Oh, well… I've got this sword." He said, unsheathing his blade.

"Oooohh!" she said, genuinely impressed with the blade.

Jaune then unhooked his sheathe, holding it differently. "And I've got this shield too." He said, his sheathe then expanding into a shield.

"Nice." Ruby said. "So, what does it do?"

As Ruby touched the shield, it caused the item to continuously switch back and forth between its sheath form and shield form. Jaune tried helplessly to catch it, only for the shield to clatter on the ground either way. He then picked it up, placing the sword back in.

"Well, the shield gets smaller, so if I ever get tired of carrying it, I can just carry it, like this." He said, placing the sheathe back on his belt.

"But, doesn't it just way the same?" Ruby asked.

"Well, at least I won't always have a shield stuck on my arm." Jaune countered.

"Ah. Now I get it." Ruby said with a nod. "Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I guess I went a little overboard when designing mine."

"… Wait. You MADE that thing?" Jaune asked in disbelief.

"Hey. All students at Beacon make their own weapons. What about you?"

Jaune unsheathed his blade again, keeping his gaze on the blade as he spoke. "It was a hand-me-down. MY great-great grandfather used it during the war."

"Oh." Ruby said, unable to take her eyes off of the blade herself. "Well, I like it. Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days."

"Yeah… the classics…" Jaune said.

At that, Ruby raised an eyebrow. She could sense a slight bit of regret coming off of Jaune. She was curious as to why he was feeling regret. Was it because he hadn't built his own weapon like everyone else?

No… there was definitely more to it than just that. As to what it was, though, Ruby felt it best not to ask. If she did so too soon, it might upset him, and that was one of the last things she wanted to do here… again.

As such, Ruby shrugged her shoulders and walked on, to wit, Jaune followed.

"So, why did you help me back there?" Ruby asked.

Jaune shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, why not. As my mom always says, 'Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet'." He said.

Ruby lowered her head after hearing that. She had a good feeling that she wouldn't be able to make many other friends. Especially if they knew about her secret. Even with Jaune now, she wouldn't be able to see him as a true friend, not while she was harbouring such a dark secret. But, until the day the truth came out, if it will ever, then she could at least still have someone to hang out with. Granted, judging by how he acted, he wasn't really one for a fight, and a bit goofy. But, nevertheless, he seemed like a great person to hang out with.

Plus, she was a bit goofy too, so who was she to judge?

"So, where are we going?" Ruby asked.

"Huh? I don't know. I was following you." Jaune admitted. He looked around, hoping to find a clue to where to go. "Do you think that there are any distinctive land marks… maybe a food court?"

Ruby let out a small giggle after hearing this.

"Is, uh… that a 'no'?" Jaune asked.

Ruby gave a nod. "That's a 'no'." she replied with a giggle.

Deciding that it was best not to wait around, as they would end up missing the entrance ceremony, the two students walked on in hopes of finding their way to where they were supposed to be.

…..

After twenty minutes and way too many wrong left turns later, both Ruby and Jaune finally found themselves entering the amphitheater, where many more students were waiting on whatever was meant to come.

Ruby then heard the sound of someone whistling, seeing her sister waving at her with a smile on her face.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled. "Over Here! I saved you a spot!"

Ruby widened her eyes, happy to finally see here sister. "Coming!" Ruby yelled back, turning towards Jaune and waving at him. "See you later, Jaune."

"Ah-Hey wait!" Jaune called out as Ruby ran off. He then slumped in annoyance, not liking that he was now alone. "Ah, great. Where else am I going to find a nice, quirky girl to talk to?" he asked out loud, unaware of the girl with red hair and spartan armour who kept her gaze locked on him.

As Ruby stopped beside her sister, she folded her arms and gave her sister a look of annoyance. "Hello, Yang." She said in a serious tone.

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Wow, someone's grumpy." She started. "Not having a good day since I last saw you?"

"You mean since you ditched me and there was an explosion?" Ruby asked.

"Wow! Someone have a meltdown already?" Yang asked, surprised by the statement.

"No, no, there really was an explosion. There was some fire… and I think some ice?" Ruby answered, placing a hand on her chin as she thought about it.

Yang formed a cheeky smile on her face, believing that Ruby was just messing with her. "Are you being sarcastic?"

"Ugh, I wish!" Ruby yelled. "I bumped into some crabby girl's luggage, one of the bags fell, I caught it, she yelled at me, she shook a vial of Dust and spilled some, making it explode, and she yelled at me again, and I yelled back and I JUST wanted her to stop-"

"YOU!"

"EEEEEP!"

In response to the sudden yelling, Ruby leaped up from the ground, accidently using her enhanced leg strength to jump high into the air, before falling back down and landing in her sister's arms.

"OH GOD, it's HAPPENING again!" Ruby cried.

"Don't think I forgot about how you had me nearly blow us off the side of the cliff!" Weiss yelled in frustration.

"Oh my god, there really was an explosion!" Yang said, surprised to see that Ruby wasn't joking.

Ruby jumped out of her sister's arms and looked at Weiss, only with more serious eyes. "Maybe you should be more careful about how you handle Dust if you're that picky about it!" she yelled. She then looked down briefly and looked back up before saying "And don't shove that Dust safety pamphlet in my face when it was you're fault!"

"Huh?" Weiss looked down, seeing part of that very pamphlet sticking out from behind her. She turned back to Ruby with a look of surprise. "How did you know what it was for? There's no writing-"

"My Uncle got one after he tried experimenting with Gravity and Ice Dust…" the very thought seemed to make both Ruby and Yang cringe, seemingly something they'd rather not remember.

Yang was surprised to see how assertive Ruby was being. Normally she was the shy and timid type when talking to people, displaying confidence only in a battle situation with her scythe. Seeing how she was standing up to the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company…

Something definitely wasn't right.

Nevertheless, she didn't want things to get out of hand yet. So she stepped in between the two. "Hey, hey. It sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. How about you guys start over?"

"Hmmm…" Ruby thought it over for a moment, before replying happily, "That sounds like a GREAT idea!"

' _Phew._ ' Yang thought, thankful that Ruby was still happy to make peace. On a more serious note, though, whatever the reason she's become like this, it worried her greatly. Part of her was guessing that she was trying to push herself to grow up more quickly, which Yang would've thought to have been great were it not for the fact that it was making Ruby a much more serious version of herself. Yang was afraid that this could make Ruby lose that light that always shun through.

What also worried her was that it was a boy causing this, which meant she would have the perfect excuse to interrogate him if need be.

Ruby, meanwhile, had stuck out her hand towards Weiss. "So, do you want to be friends? We can go look for school supplies." She suggested.

"Oh, yeah, and we can get our nails done, shop for new clothes and talk about, tall, blond and scraggly over there!" she said with a sarcastic tone, while pointing towards a familiar blond knight with her thumb.

Ruby gasped with excitement. She wasn't fond of those kinds of thing, in reality, but it would be nice to hang out with another person, and in turn give this icy girl a reason to be more positive in life. Ruby could nearly choke on the amount of negativity she was giving off, but it was something that she could ignore easily.

"REALLY!?" Ruby cried with joy.

"… No." Weiss replied sternly.

As Ruby slumped her shoulders in defeat, she heard the sound of speaker turning on, and heard someone coughing into the sound system.

"I'll… keep this brief."

Ruby looked up, seeing the same man who had helped her realize her dream and allow her entry into Beacon. Looking at him now, compared to the assertive but, somehow chilled at the same time, form he had before replaced with… a serious, but… detached air about him. She raised an eyebrow as to what was going on.

"You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft, and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people…" he stared, looking at all the hopeful faces in the crowd.

"But I look amongst you… and all I see is wasted energy… wasted energy in search of purpose. Direction." He narrowed his eyes, not out of anything like spite, but more so like he was remembering something from his past, becoming partially lost in the memory.

"You assume that knowledge will free you from this. However, during you're time in this school, you will learn that knowledge will only carry you so far…" he gaze then turned towards Ruby, looking more awake and as assertive as she had seen in the police station. "It is up to you to take the first step."

With that, he left the stage, leaving Glynda to add her part of the presentation.

"You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow, your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

With that, Yang crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, surprised by the Headmaster's speech, but also how he _seemed_. Was _everyone_ acting weird or something? "Something seems… off about him."

"It's like he wasn't even there." Ruby added.

Weiss continued to stare up at the stage, unaware of the blond knight that was now standing beside her.

"I'm a natural blond, y'know."

"EEEP!"

Jaune's sudden appearance frightened the heiress, making her jump and unintentionally jump into Ruby's arms. A second after, Ruby looked at her with a small smile, while Weiss looked back at Ruby with a look of embarrassment and anger.

"Never. Speak of this." Weiss demanded.

…

Night finally came upon the students of Beacon Academy. The hall was divided into two halves for the night. On one half, the boys would rest, the other, the girls. Given the number of teens in the room, this would be considered a necessary by the disciplinarians of the school (i.e., Goodwitch).

Ruby was now resting on her sleeping bag, wearing a sleeveless pajama top with a cartoon Beowolf on it, and white pyjama bottoms with red poka-dots. Adjusting the sleeping mask on her head she kept her gaze on the letter she was writing.

Yang flopped down beside her, wearing an orange pajama top with her emblem stitched on, and a pair of short pyjama bottoms.

"It like a BIIIIG slumber party." The elder sister said with enthusiasm.

"I'm not sure if dad would approve of all the boys, though." Ruby pointed out. Despite his chilled attitude, Taiyang was ferociously protective of his daughters.

"I know I do." Yang replied, her eyes rolling towards the many shirtless, and surprisingly muscular males around the hall. However, her lustful gaze faltered when she saw Jaune dressed in a grey onezie. This caused Yang to recoil in distaste, but in turn caused her to notice her sister's letter.

"What'cha doin' there?" Yang asked.

"I'm writing a letter to the guys back in Signal." Ruby answered. "They were all happy to hear about me coming here, and I promised I'd write to them to let them know what's going on."

"Oh, that is sooo CUUUTE!" Yang exclaimed, only to receive a pillow in the face.

"Shut up. I didn't get to bring my friends with me, it's weird not knowing anyone here." Ruby stated. Things weren't easy for her, for obvious reasons, and now that she was in a new environment, it's only adding to her discomfort.

"What about Jaune?" Yang suggested. "He's… nice. There you go, that's one friend you made here."

Ruby rolled onto her back and rested her head in her hands. "I'm pretty sure Weiss counts as a negative friend. Back to zero." She said with a deadpanned tone.

"There's no such thing as a 'negative friend'. You've just made one friend and one enemy." Yang said, to which she received another flying pillow to the face. She removed the pillow before continuing to speak. "Look, it's only been one day. Trust me, you've got more friends around you than you think. You just haven't met them yet."

Ruby furrowed her eyebrows as what Yang said repeated itself. It was quite synonymous with what Jaune said to her earlier. She admitted to herself that Yang had a point, but… she was never able to make friends as easily as Yang. Heck, even before becoming what she is now, she always did well in not making friends, and making bad first impressions… last year's disco at Signal certainly proved that.

Ruby was soon brought out of her thoughts when her peripheral vision caught the sight of a soft, orange light. She sat up and turned her head towards the source, seeing the girl with the bow reading a book by candlelight.

"That girl…" Ruby said out loud.

Yang raised an eyebrow. "You know her?" she asked.

Ruby shook her head. "No… she kind of helped me out this morning."

"…" A wide grin formed on Yang's face as an idea. "How about we go talk to her?" she suggested as she stood up on her feet.

"Huh?" Ruby voiced, before being pulled up onto her feet. "H-HEY! What are you doing!? Stop!"

The girl with the bow lowered her book, seeing the two sisters making their way over to her. The Monochrome girl looked calm, but inwardly couldn't help but be surprised by the sight of the silver-eyed teen. She remembered that dark vibe she got from her earlier. However, she wouldn't focus on that for now.

Especially since the older girl with the blond hair was giving her enough hardship.

"Hellooooo!" sang the blond in question.

Yang and Ruby both stopped in front of the girl, the former giving her best smile. "I believe you two know each other." She said.

The Monochrome girl raised an eyebrow at Ruby. "Aren't you… the girl that exploded?" she asked.

"Uh, yeah. My name's Ruby, but you can call me crater…" Ruby gave an awkward laugh and rubbed the back of her head. "… Actually you can just call me Ruby.

Blake looked confused. Not because of the girl's behavior, but because she couldn't sense a trace of… whatever it was that she felt earlier. She was certain that there was something there before… but then again, she could tell it wasn't the girl, per say, but… it was like she was hosting it.

As the girl stared at them in silence, Yang turned to Ruby. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know! Help me!" Ruby replied, both she and Yang both smiling back at the monochrome girl.

"So… what's your name?" Yang asked.

"Blake." The girl replied.

Yang quickly thought about what to say next. "I, uh… like your bow." She tried.

"Thanks." Blake replied.

"It goes great with your… pajamas." Yang inwardly cringed, even she could tell that things were just crashing and burning at this point.

Starting to grow tired of this conversation, and sensing none of that darkness in Ruby any longer, Blake lowered her head and brought her gaze back on her book. "Great…"

"…" Not liking the awkward silence, Yang decided to try again. "So… nice night, huh?"

"Yes, it's a lovely night." Blake replied, looking back up with a look of irritation. "Almost as lovely as this book that I'm reading."

"…" Ruby and Yang stood in silence, not understanding Blake's point.

"Which I will continue to read."

"…"

"As soon as you leave." She finished.

Yang turned to Ruby. "Well, she's a lost cause."

However, Ruby had something different in mind. "What's it about?"

This caught Blake by surprise, once again lifting her gaze from the book and at the young reaper. "Huh?" she said, her surprise as obvious as can be.

"Your book. What's it about?" Ruby asked again.

IT took a moment from Blake to recover from the surprise, but she happily gave her answer. "It's about a man with two souls. Each one striving for control of the body."

"Oh… that sounds… nice." Yang said. As she wasn't fond of books, she really couldn't understand the appeal.

Ruby stepped forward. "I love books. Yang used to read them to me when I was little. Stories of heroes and monsters. They're one of the reasons why I want to be a Huntress."

"You hoping that you'll live happily ever after?" Blake asked.

"I'm hoping we all will." Ruby answered. "As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books. Someone who fought for what was right, and protected those you couldn't protect themselves."

"That's very ambitious for a child." Blake stated, genuinely impressed by Ruby's passion for this. Her face, however, soon faltered as she was reminded of the many troubles. "Unfortunately, the real world isn't the same as a fairy tale." She pointed out.

Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that's why we're here. To make it better."

"Aww." Yang suddenly said, pulling her sister into a hug. "I'm so proud of my baby sister."

"Yang, cut it out!" Ruby cried, suddenly pulling Yang into a fight that created a cloud of dust. Shrouding all but their fists and feet.

Blake looked at the fight between the two for a moment, both impressed with Ruby's optimism, but bewildered by the behavior between the siblings.

"Ruby, Yang… it's been a pleasure, but-"

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?"

Ruby and Yang both stopped fighting, both turning to see the Heiress with her hair down and wearing a grey-blue nightdress, and see was _not_ happy.

"Some of us are trying to sleep over here!" she started, only for her to recognize who it was that was causing the ruckus.

Both she and Yang pointed out each other. "OH NO! NOT YOU AGAIN!" they both yelled in anger.

"Shh!" Ruby voiced. "Keep it down, guy's, she's right, people are trying to sleep."

"Oh, so NOW you're on my side?" Weiss exclaimed.

"I was always on your side." Ruby rebutted.

"Hey, lay off my little sister!" Yang yelled at the Heiress. "She's just trying to help!"

"She's a hazard to my health!" Weiss yelled back.

Blake's eyes had been going back and forth, going to each other the girls as she witnessed their argument. In the end, however, she felt that she had had enough, taking her candle and blew out the flame, allowing the girls to argue well into the night.

 **Right, we'll leave things here for now. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter, and once again, sorry it took so long. It's unavoidable with myself, but nonetheless annoying, I know. Either way, glad to have gotten another update in.**

 **And, before I leave, just to give you a fair warning, i'm going to be working on my story RWBY: Dark Storm next, since a fair number of people have been inquiring me about it. For anyone reading that story, don't worry, I'm NOW on it.**

 **Right, with all that said and done, I'm going to sign off for now. Hope eveyone has a super christmas, and i'll see you all later.**

 **Happy Holidays! :-)**


	3. Chapter 3

"Mmm… that cookie… looks tasty."

Ruby was currently in a deep sleep. She ended up staying awake quite late thanks to Weiss, Yang and herself arguing for some reason. It was so long and heated that they eventually forgot what they were arguing about, and the three of them ended up dropping like lights.

Currently, her mouth drooling as her head dreamed of herself devouring several thousand cookies, ranging from chocolate chip to macaroons (which even she found strange, even in her dream, but she wasn't going to complain about eating cookies). It was practically the very definition of heaven to the young reaper.

In reality, Ruby was fast asleep in her sleeping bag, a stream of drool pouring down the side of her face as she savored the imaginary taste of the cookies she dreamed about. She rolled onto her side and outstretched arm, as if she was trying to reach out for something.

"Zwei, no… bring back that cookie…" she mumbled. "You already ate your share."

As Ruby continued to dream away, she was completely oblivious to her blond-haired sister sneaking up to her, who wore a wicked smile on her face. She was fully dressed, which was extremely unusual considering that Yang was a late sleeper. However, as she was trying to sleep last night, she connected her scroll to a pair of headphones to play relaxing music to help her sleep.

The unfortunate part of this was that she didn't take into account the possibility of falling asleep with the headphones one, and ended up receiving a much louder alarm directly into the ears.

Despite the painful wake-up call, it proved to be most useful for herself, as she was able to use the very thing that she planned to wake her sister up with. She delved into her pockets and pulled out-

"WAKE UP, LAZY BUTT!"

"AAAHH!"

Ruby was sent vertical up into the air from the fright. A seconds later, she came falling back down landing in Yang's arms. The elder sister ended up dropping her air horn so as to catch Ruby. While her attempt to wake Ruby up in a humorous manner, it was more than made up for when Yang saw the look of surprise on Ruby's face.

"Morning sis." Yang said.

Ruby blinked a couple of times before looking at Yang. "Oh, uh… Morning… was that you?"

Yang shook her head before nudging it towards the source of the disturbance. Both sisters were now looking at a young woman with red hair and blue eyes dressed and ready for battle, apparently zipping around a boy with black hair, aside from a strand that was colored pink, and magenta eyes. She seemed ready and overjoyed for the day, while he still seemed a little sleepy, but happy for his friend's joy.

"Wow." Ruby said as she jumped out of her sister's arms. "Looks like we're not the only ones looking forward to the day, huh?"

Yang stretched her arms as she spoke. "Who wouldn't? We'll be showing those professors that their time is OVER. Time to show those blowhards what we're made of."

"Yang, that's so mean." Ruby commented, not liking when someone said something rude behind another's back."

"Sorry Rubes." Yang said, quickly remembering how considerate the girl could be. "Well, let's just move onto the-OOPS!"

Something fell from Yang's pocket. Before she could catch it, it fell to the floor, rolling directly at Ruby's feet. When Ruby saw what the item was, she slowly bent down to pick up the item, looking at her sister with a deadpanned expression.

"Yang… what's this?" Ruby asked, holding up the air-horn that fell out of Yang's pocket.

"… It's… a gift from a friend." Yang said, seeming to fail at coming up with a believable excuse for the air-horn."

"… You were going to wake me up with this, weren't you?" Ruby asked.

Yang scratched the pack of her head nervously. "Maaaaaybeee-OH LOOK A PUPPY!"

"WHERE!?" Ruby asked, looking with sparkly eyes where Yang had point. Her expression changed to one of shock when she heard her sister dashing away from where she stood. And worst of all… there weren't any puppies.

"YAAAANG!" Ruby yelled as she used her Semblance to chase her sister down the hallways, followed by what could only be described as complicated bickering between the siblings, as those that heard them could only hear gibberish coming from the two.

…

Ozpin was currently standing at the cliff-side where the students were suppose to meet for the start of the initiation. He was with his cane and trusty mug of cocoa, pondering on what he thought would happen during the day.

However, his mind soon went onto the topic of Ruby Rose. The youngest student ever to be accepted into Beacon, and one who now has an incredibly serious burden to bare. She herself showed doubt in herself over whether or not she could handle this trial, but it was also abundantly clear that she wasn't ready to throw in the towel yet.

There were two issues that Ozpin was concerned with regarding her at the moment. One, would she be able to control herself in the Emerald Forest? Should she be force to delve into the use of those abilities of hers, she might not be able to control. From what Qrow told him, she had only acquired these abilities recently, and she was still adjusting.

However, as ashamed as he was about it, curiosity was overwhelming Ozpin, and he really wished to know what she was able to do.

That lead to the second problem. All students would be monitored during the initiation, and should be exposed on the monitor footage, or seen by any of the other students, it would cause mass panic. If only there was a way too…

"Professor Ozpin?"

Ozpin blinked in surprise when he heard his name being called out. He looked behind him to see Glynda walking up to him, a look of slight worry on her face.

"Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yes… of course." He answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Because I called you numerous times on your scroll, and four times just now, but you didn't respond."

"…"

Ozpin inwardly cursed at this. He was trying to be as subtle about this as possible, but it seemed that his worry was making him act too differently.

"My apologies, Glynda. I was just…" he kept a blank expression, but he was inwardly rushing to think of something to say."

"… It's about Miss Rose, isn't it?" Glynda asked.

Ozpin hesitated for a moment before nodding his head. "Yes. Despite her skill, she is younger than the rest of the initiates. There are more dangers in the forest than she may have experienced, after all."

"The same could be said for the other initiates." Glynda pointed out. She folded her arms and lowered her head slightly as she tried to find a solution. Admittedly, she was also worried for the girl, even though she dared not show it. It would have been useful to see if…

"Hang on…" Glynda started. "I do have a way to check, if you like."

Ozpin raised an eyebrow, instantly curious as to what the woman had to say, and that it gave him the answer he was looking for.

"I'm listening."

….

"Wonder what they're so excited about?"

Yang eyed the red-haired girl and the magenta-eyed boy they saw from this morning, seeing the girl speaking to him like she had devoured twelve shots of espressos, while the boy managed to, if not happily, talked with the girl with a calmer demeanor.

"Beats me." Rose replied, taking Crescent Rose out of her locker and eyeing it lovingly

Yang looked over and saw how happy Ruby looked. "Well, someone looks awfully chipper this morning." She commented.

"Despite you nearly waking me up with an air-horn?" Ruby asked, Yang to smile sheepishly again. "Well, I am. No more small talk or 'getting to know you' stuff. Today, I'll just let my sweetheart do the talking." She said, gently cradling the folded weapon like a child.

"You know Ruby, you're not the only one going through initiation. If you want to grow up, you're going to have to learn how to meet new people and learn how to work together." Yang pointed out.

And like that, Ruby felt the hype she felt earlier fall through the floor. "Ugh, you sound just like Dad." She said as she placed scythe back in the locker. "Okay, first of all, what does meeting new people have to do with fighting? And second of all, I don't need people to help me grow up. I. Drink. Milk." She said, finishing with a look of pride and folding her arms.

"But what about when we form teams?" Yang asked, knowing that this would be something Ruby would probably have something with.

This actually freaked out Ruby more than Yang thought. Ruby didn't show it, but she was now worried to the bone. She had forgotten about that, being on a team with complete strangers that could, and WOULD, kill her if they learned about her secret. She turned away from her sister as she tried to hide her worry.

"Oh, well… I guess I could be on… on your team." Ruby suggested.

Ruby still didn't feel confident. While Yang was her sister, and she knew that she would protect her even if she knew… it was still something that she wasn't sure on. This kind of information was… delicate, to say the least.

"Well, maybe you should… try and be on another team." Yang suggested, gently brushing her hair.

That comment, however, caused Ruby to feel a little offended. She walked up to Yang and gave her an accusing glare. "My dearest sister Yang, are you saying you don't wish to be on the same TEAM as me!?"

"What-No." Yang defended. "I'm just saying it would help you to break out of your shell is all."

"WHAT!" Ruby yelled, slightly offended that her sister has so little faith in her. "I don't need to break out of my shell. That's totally-"

"Ridiculous!" Yelled Jaune as he walked right past Ruby and Yang. "There's no way I left my weapon in locker 636 yesterday. Oh, why did this have to happen today?" he yelled.

Yang saw the boy walk off, raising an eyebrow at him. " _Yeesh_ , doesn't look like he'll have much today." She said, wondering how he managed to get into Beacon… then again, not many people expected her to get in, especially since she just managed to scrape in.

"You never know, he might-UGH!"

Ruby's knees suddenly buckled, as well as her leaning forward. She leaned against her locker as she felt a sudden flow of energy form throughout her form. She could also tell from the sudden, slight tint of red in her vision that it was happening again.

Yang panicked for a moment when she saw Ruby buckle, kneeling down after her to see if she was okay. "Ruby? Ruby, what's wrong?" she asked her, her voice filled with panic.

Ruby didn't answer. Instead, she took a few calming breaths, trying to get the surge of energy under control. After a few more seconds, the red tint in her vision faded and the extra energy soon faded away. When she was sure she had calmed down, she looked back up at her worried sister, giving her a reassuring grin.

"I'm fine, Yang." Ruby answered, before looking slightly bashful. "Maybe… maybe I'm a little more nervous than I thought."

Hearing this, Yang's panic dwindled, but her concern for Ruby grew more. She pulled Ruby into a hug, hoping it would help.

"Don't worry sis. You'll do great." Yang assured her. "No matter what happens, even if you're paired up with someone else, I'll be there for you."

Ruby paused for a moment, taking her sister's words in. She then smiled and returned her hug. "Aw, thanks sis."

 _*THUNK*_

The sisterly moment was interrupted when they heard something sticking into the wall behind them. Much to Ruby's surprise, and not so much to Yang's, Jaune was pinned to the wall by his hoodie, hanging limply off the wall by a spear-like weapon.

Yang simply sighed, looking at the girl in spartan armor, standing beside the Schnee Heiress, putting two and two together.

"Either Jaune's got guts… or zero brains." She said as she stood up, walking over to the exit to the cliff-side.

When they reached Jaune, who had been freed from the spear by the spartan girl, looked up at Yang with a look of confusion.

"I don't understand. My dad always said that girls love confidence." He said to her.

"Maybe _Snow Angel_ wasn't the best place to start." Yang suggested, tussling the boy's hair in sympathy before walking off. Following Yang was Ruby, who helped Jaune up onto his feet.

"There we go." Ruby said as she wrapped an arm around his shoulder, the both of them walking over to the meeting point.

"Oh, boy. This is gonna suck." Jaune said in a defeated tone.

' _You think YOU got problems?_ ' Ruby inwardly joked.

….

Soon, all the initiates were gathered outside at the appointed destination. Upon seeing that everyone had arrived, Ozpin and Glynda both stepped forward, preparing to explain what they were to expect.

Ozpin was the first to speak. "For years, you have all trained to become warriors. And today, you're abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest."

Glynda then stepped forward. "Now I'm sure that many of you have heard rumors about how teams are formed. Well allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will will be assigned teams… today."

"Oh…" Ruby said, slumping forward."

Ozpin began speaking again. "Your teams will be with you for the rest of your time here at Beacon. As such, it would be in your best interest to pair up with someone you can get along with…" Ozpin quickly glanced over the initiates. "That being said, the first person you make eye-contact with will be your partner… for the next four years."

"…" At that, Ruby felt her entire world shatter. "WHAT!?"

Ignoring Ruby's reaction, Ozpin continued. "After you have entered the Emerald Forest, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy anything in your path, or you will die."

Jaune let out a nervous chuckle after hearing this. Ruby suspected that Jaune _may_ have some difficulty after all.

"You will be monitored and graded for the duration of your initiation. Our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing and your grade appropriately. Any question?"

Jaune raised his hand. "Uh, yes sir, I've a ques-"

"Good." Ozpin interrupted, either not having heard Jaune or wanting to get a move on with the test.

With that, the students were led onto metallic platforms. However, with Ruby, Professor Goodwitch had told her to stand on the last platform. This made Ruby uncomfortable, once again being made to stand out against the rest of the older students. However, not wanting to get on Goodwitch's bad side, she followed her directions.

Soon, students were quickly introduced to the introduction of what the platforms were for, as the student on the farthest left was suddenly launched into the air, flying high up into the forest. As the student flew, Ruby's eyes widened, now looking forward to going into the forest even more.

"Oh WOW!" Ruby yelled.

"Um, sir, I've a question." Jaune said to Ozpin, this time getting the man's attention. "So, uh, for this test, are you going to, uh, drop is in, or…?"

"No. You will be falling." Ozpin answered.

Jaune, seemingly oblivious to the several students being launched into the air on his left, then asked "Oh… so, uh, are you going to give us parachutes?"

"No." Ozpin answered again. "You will be using your own landing strategy."

Jaune gave a slight nod of understanding. "Oh, okay." He answered. He then scrunched his face up as another thought came to mind. "Oh, one more thing. What _is_ a landing strategYYYYYYYYY-HE-HE-HE-HEEEEEE!"

Jaune was sent flying into the air, only he was helplessly flailing in the air, screaming in pure terror. Ruby, while feeling sorry for the boy, had to do her best to hold in her laughter at the sight. She got over it, though, instead focusing on her being launched into the air.

"Oh yeah! Looks like I'm up." She said eagerly.

"Not quite."

"… Huh?"

Ruby looked over to the two staff members, looking rather uncertain by Ozpin's words just now. "What… do you mean?"

"While we see that you're quite adept at combat, Miss Rose, we want to just check to see if you're ready for the environment that you would have to go through when on missions." Goodwitch explained. "Therefore, we will monitor you in an area that we have seen to have a moderate level of Grimm. After we are satisfied with your performance, then you can continue with the initiation."

"Oh, COME ON!" Ruby yelled, feeling rather down at having to be treated like a kid… AGAIN!

"Miss Rose…" Ozpin lifted his cane and pointed towards a path down the cliff-side. "Please follow that path down to the designated clearing, please."

"… Oh… okay…" she said, clearly disappointed.

With great reluctance, Ruby followed Ozpin's orders. As she walked down the path, Ozpin looked down at his scroll, setting it up so that he could keep record of Ruby's ability. As he did, Ozpin narrowed his eyes. This was going to be the only opportunity to see what Ruby was now capable of now.

"Such a shame to dash Miss Rose's hopes." Ozpin said. "She seemed to look forward to joining the rest in the forest."

"Let's hope that Miss Rose is more able than you believe, sir." Goodwitch said. "Then she'll be able to catch up soon."

The clearing where Ruby was to go to was now visible on the scroll.

"If I'm right… she'll prove to be quite the dangerous fighter." Ozpin said, a slight grin forming on his face. "… Maybe a little too dangerous."

…..

"Oh… this is the worst."

Ruby had made it to the destination that she was told to walk to. She found herself in a circular clearing, similar to where she and Yang would go to train. The only difference being that there was a lot more grass on the ground.

The mini reaper plopped on the ground, looking defeated. During the initiation, she thought that things were going to more… exciting, energizing, more… 'KA-POW', so to speak. Instead, things are just as they've always been. No matter how much she tried to prove them wrong, they always think of her as a kid, thinking that she can't handle things like all the other trainees could do. At this stage, she was fed up with it all.

"I knew this would happen… being treated special… and its's the worst." She said out loud.

She got back on her feet. Wiping the dirt off her skirt. After she had finished, she felt her scroll ringing. She took it out of her pocket, seeing that she received a text…

"From professor Ozpin?" she said out loud. She opened the text, curious as to what he had to say.

' _Now's the time. Unleash the power within._ '

As if on que, Ruby heard the sound of howling and growling in the distance. the young Huntress pocketed her scroll. Before she could grab her weapon, she heard a distinct, ferocious roar from behind her, seeing a Beowolf dashing towards her at great speed. She used her Semblance to evade the attack, but unfortunately, the beast managed to slash at her folded scythe, causing the weapon to fly away from its owner.

Ruby landed and saw the Crescent Rose clattering to the ground.

"NO!" Ruby cried as she tried to run towards the weapon, only for another Beowolf to appear in front of her, slashing at her.

This time, the claws hit her with full force, sending her flying through the air. She back flipped before landing on her feet, grasping her right forearm. Sometimes she wished that her aura would reduce pain as well as keep her safe from harm, especially since she had to deal with some very stingy attacks.

She looked up, seeing many more Beowolves beginning to gather. It looks like an entire… pack…

That's when it hit her. Ruby realized that the place that Ozpin lead her to was actually the den of a Beowolf pack. And by the looks of things, a rather large one.

"Whoa…" Ruby sounded, not having seen this many Beowolves in a while. The last time she saw anything this big, she was visiting her mother during the winter, soon after she was ambushed by a large number of the Wolf Grimm.

This time, however, she was without her scythe.

"Oh man, what do I do? I can't-"

 _Unleash the power within_

Ruby remembered the words from Ozpin's text. Now she understood why she was here. Why she was separated from the group.

He wanted to see how well she could use _it_.

"Well… without Crescent Rose, there ain't much options, are there?"

Ruby slowly got back on her feet, letting her arms drop by her sides, lowering her head and slowly closing her eyes. This behavior seemed to confuse the Beowolves, never having seen such a… 'calmness' in any of their prey before.

"Alright, sir… if you want to see what I can do…" Ruby opened her eyes, this time her Irises were scarlet, and the whites of her eyes turned completely black. In addition, her aura had also changed to the same shade of black as the whites of her eyes, an ominous power suddenly radiating from the girl.

" **Then I'll do my best!** " she said, her voice now distorted and echoed.

With a roar, one of the Beowolves dashed forward, its jaws opened wide as it aimed to devour the girl. Ruby didn't move an inch, instead a calm smile formed on her face, as if she was looking forward the beast's attack.

When it was close enough, Ruby shot out her hands, grabbing the jaws of the Beowolf. As she did, the black aura intensified, seeming to concentrate more on her arms.

" **Nice… TRY!** " she yelled before pulling the Grimm's head down to the ground, pressing her boot against the side of its lower jaw while using her newfound strength to tear the top half of the Grimm's head off. After finishing the Grimm off, she turned to the rest of the Grimm.

Ruby was slightly shocked at the ferocity of her own attack, but she knew that she couldn't hesitate. After rolling her shoulders and jumping up and down lightly, she raised her fists, finding a new-found desire to fight. " **Alright, any one else want a-WHOA!** "

Ruby moved to the left, avoiding another Beowolf. As she avoided its claws, she stumbled and nearly tripped allowing the Beowolf the chance to swipe at her again. As Ruby had fallen onto the ground, for a quick recovery she rolled forward, her foot kicking the Grimm's wrist, knocking it away.

Ruby managed to get some distance form her and the Grimm. She looked around, seeing the rest of the Grimm slowly making their way towards her.

" **Oh… uh, wow, there's really a lot of you here, huh?** " Ruby said with a hint of worry. But, she then gave a sigh, seeing that there was only one way to end this quickly without her weapon. " **Guess I've no choice**."

Ruby extended her hands out by her sides. Closing her eyes, she began to slowly breathe in and out, trying her best to let the tension out of her body. The Beowolves saw how she was stationary. Deciding to use what little intelligence they had, they all leaped at her at once, making sure that she wouldn't be able to escape.

It proved futile.

" **Bad move!** "

Ruby's eyes snapped open. The black of her eyes changed back to white, but her irises still stayed scarlet. Her black aura became much darker and began to flare out like a vicious flame, the majority building up around her forearms.

As one of the Beowolves came close, Ruby swiped her right arm at the Beowolf. In that single strike, the Grimm was sliced, splitting into numerous pieces before fading away.

All the remaining Beowolves landed on the ground, excepting to have trapped the girl. However, she wasn't at all present.

" **Missing someone?** "

The Beowolves turned, seeing their red-caped target. This time, however, her arms were what drew in their attention. The black aura that had formed around them had formed another shape. The aura became...

Claws. Dark, razor sharp claws that even had the Beowolves whimpering at the sight of them alone.

Without another word, Ruby dashed forward, extending the claws of dark aura. With speed that nearly matched her Semblance, she passed right through the pack. One by one, the Grimm howled in pain, and clouds of black ash flying up into the air. By the time she was finished, the ground was littered with pieces of fading Grimm.

As swiftly as it started, the deed was done, leaving Ruby to turn back and see the results of her work. Ruby looked crestfallen, having had to use that power alone to fight off the Grimm. A power that she loathed.

She looked at her hand, her eyes glued on the sharp tips of these claws. She swiped her hand to one side, causing the aura claws to vanish. Her eyes then returned to their regular silver color.

"… Well… no point crying about it."

Ruby's expression changed, giving the air a proud smile and determined eyes. She clenched her hands into fist, raising one of them and resting it against her chest.

"If I'm gonna be stuck with this power, may as well make the most of it." She stated. "Hope you're okay with all this… Mom."

"I'm sure she'd be proud either way."

Ruby could've sworn she felt her heart stop beating for a moment. Slowly she turned around, the girl's eyes having become wide with fear.

"Wh… who's there?" she asked.

Stepping out from behind the trees was a person Ruby had never seen before. A woman, seemingly in her late twenties or early thirties, with long black hair that was tied into a pony tail, with several streaks of dark orange showing at the tips, green eyes and tanned skin. She wore a black, long-sleeved blouse, a pair of grey jeans, high-heel boots that reached up to her knees, which was hidden by the jeans, and a necklace with an orange circle with a black outline on it.

It was strange. If she was in the forest, and she seemed so calm, than she would have to be a Huntress. But, compared to literally everyone she met, she seemed to be the most normal-looking Huntress Ruby ever. Professor Goodwitch would have been high on the list were it not for her cape.

"That would be me." The woman answered with a friendly grin. "I'll admit, that was an impressive show. I didn't think Aura was capable of being used to that degree."

Ruby glared at the woman, quickly eyeing the area as she looked for her scythe. Much to her horror, however, it was nowhere to be seen.

"Dang it! Where-"

"Looking for this?"

The woman put her hand behind her back, pulling out something from behind. Ruby looked appalled when she saw that it was the Crescent Rose.

"MY BABY!" Ruby yelled, looking like a panicked mother who lost her child. "GIVE ME BACK CRESCENT ROSE!"

The woman looked surprised for a moment. She looked at the folded weapon, her eyes full of intrigue. "'Crescent Rose'? That's a beautiful name." she said. "And from what I hear and witnessed, a fitting weapon for one with such power."

The woman tossed the Folded scythe back to Ruby, who quickly caught it and began stroking it like an injured pet.

The woman placed a hand on her hip, playfully raising an eyebrow at the young initiate. "So, what _was_ that? Is that your Semblance? Or are you just pretty good at manipulating your Aura?"

"…" Ruby bit her lip, not wanting to risk saying something that could give her away.

After a few seconds of silence, the woman rolled her eyes, seeming to not like the silence.

"I guess you're not keen on sharing?" she asked. "Well, the Headmaster said it could be an issue for you… I suppose it's not fair of me to ask you like that."

"Huh? You mean Ozpin?" Ruby asked.

"The one and only." The woman answered, before giving the Huntress in training a two-fingered salute. "By the way, in case you're wondering, you're free to go."

"… Huh?"

"I'm the one who gets to decide if you can go through with the initiation." The woman briefly explained. "My name is Professor Peach, by the way. I volunteered to observe your ability here to see if you can handle an environment like this." Professor Peach gave her another grin. "And, you've passed with flying colors. Well done, Miss Rose."

Ruby was admittedly surprised. she expected the teachers here to be as harsh as Professor Goodwitch. But Professor Peach here was almost the exact opposite, positive, laid-back-ish, and wasn't afraid to show her softer side. It gave Ruby a little more hope that things might turn out well in the end.

"Oh… well, great." Ruby said, although a little unsure of what just happened. "So… can I go now, or-"

"Yep, free to go." Peach answered answered. "Go! Kill some Grimm! Grab a relic."

Ruby gave the professor two thumbs up. "Awesome! Thank you, Professor." Ruby said before using her Semblance to speed into forest.

As the mini reaper dashed off, Peach folded her arms and watched the girl go, thinking back to the power she used. It looked like she used her Aura to mimic the Beowolves and fight back.

"What kind of girl _is_ she?" she asked herself. "And Why is Ozpin not telling me... or anyone, anything either?"

….

Ruby was moving as quickly through the forest as her Semblance would allow her. At this rate, she was probably far behind the rest of the initiates. They probably would've reached the temple by now…

And all the good people to partner up with will have been taken by now.

" _WHY DID OZPIN HAVE TO DO THIS! NOW I'M NOT GONNA BE ABLE TO PARTNER UP WITH YANG!_ " Ruby thought. " _Okay, okay, no need to get flustered. There's probably someone else. Who could I go for… Jaune! Yes! He's easy to talk to, we get on… but I don't think he'd do well in a fight though._ "

" _Oh, how about Blake? She's dark and Mysterious. Plus, she likes books. I like books… but I don't think I'd be able to hold up a conversation with her. Okay, Think Ruby._ "

Ruby deactivated her Semblance " _Okay, Let's see…_ " _There's Yang, Jaune, Blake and-_ "

"Ouch!"

Ruby snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone crying out in pain. She looked behind her, seeing someone trapped under a large amount of leaves and foliage. How this person managed to do it, Ruby had no idea.

"Hold on!" Ruby yelled, jogging up to the trapped initiate. She knelt down and began removing the flora. "Don't worry, I'll get you o-"

"I don't need you're help!"

The initiate stuck her head out from under the pile. When she did, she revealed herself to be the Schnee Heiress.

"…"

Weiss and Ruby both looked at each other silently, neither sure of what to say. However, their facial expressions said it all, Ruby's face becoming one of joy at having found a partner, while Weiss' contrasting face of horror was due to having _Ruby_ as a partner.

Ruby was the first to break the silence.

"Nice to meet you, partner!" she yelled with a bright smile.

 **Alright, that's chapter 3 down for this. Don't really have much to say, other than thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed it, and I'm going to try and work on as many of my other stories as possible. More than likely, 'Dark Angel of Remnant', admittedly, but if you have anything in particular you want to see updated, let me know.**

 **Right, hope you all have a good day. See you all later. ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

"Weiss! Wait up!"

"Stop following me!"

Weiss, c'mon! We have to stay together and get to the ruins!"

"I said stop following me!"

"I'll buy you cookies when this is over!"

"Will you STOP following me!"

Shortly after Ruby and Weiss encountered each other, the unexpected meeting resulting in the two becoming partners for the rest of their time here in Beacon. Ruby was happy, despite her and the girl in white not getting on well, as she now had someone that could give her some back-up if she needed it.

Weiss, on the other hand, was not thrilled at the idea. She was wanting the perfect partner, someone on the same level as Pyrrha Nikos. Instead, she got the child that caused an explosion, one that would've caused her some serious damage had she not had her Aura. As such, when the Heiress escaped from the pile of plants and vines that she was trapped under, she immediately walked away from Ruby.

Much to her annoyance, Ruby was well able to keep up.

"Weiss, we're not going to be able the initiation if all you do is try and avoid me." Ruby pointed out.

Weiss tried her best to ignore the mini reaper, but she did have a point. If they didn't get back on track, they wouldn't be able to complete the initiation, and would be kicked out of Beacon.

She slowed down her pace, soon coming to a stop. With reluctance, she turned around and faced Ruby.

"… Fine." She said, noting Ruby's growing enthusiasm. "But, I have three rules."

Ruby shrugged her shoulders. "Sounds fair."

"Rule 1: Don't talk to me."

"… Okay."

"Rule 2: Don't look at me."

"Eh?"

"Rule 3: Don't breathe near me."

"...WHAT!?"

Weiss folded her arms and looked at Ruby. "If you can follow those rules, then we will have no problems with the initiation."

"IF I FOLLOW THOSE RULES I'LL BY FROM LACK OF AIR!" Ruby yelled, waving her arms frantically.

"That's your problem." Weiss said as she began to walk on ahead. "Now… let's head that way."

"…" Ruby stood in stunned silence, unsure of how to deal with the situation. Eventually, Ruby relented and followed Weiss at a distance, not wanting to get too close as she still wanted to breathe. "This is gonna suck."

…..

"…"

Ozpin was looking at his scroll, checking the camera feed from the Emerald Forest and making sure that the students were alright. So far, everyone in the forest were progressing well. Well… aside from one or two stragglers, but he could still see that they were going to make it towards the ruins. He was never one to give up hope on anyone, and usually that belief proved worth-while in the end.

"Hey, Boss."

Ozpin turned around, seeing Professor Peach making her appearance. She was looking as relaxed as usual.

"I see you have returned." Ozpin said to her. "How did you find Ruby's performance?"

"… Well… you weren't kidding when you said I was in for a surprise." She admitted , keeping her gaze on the view of the forest below. "Never seen a Huntsman or Huntress who could manipulate Aura like that."

Ozpin took a sip from a cup of cocoa that he had on hand, just in case. "Miss Rose is certainly full of surprises." He added.

"…" Professor Peach looked at Ozpin, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. "What's her deal, sir? With all due respect, a girl who's able to mimic the abilities of a Beowolf just seems a little too weird for me."

"…" Ozpin didn't respond, but his silence was enough to get Peach to drop the matter.

Peach looked around, a bit surprised to see that Goodwitch wasn't around.

"Where's your right-hand woman?" she asked him.

"Glynda had to take a break. Seeing Jaune Arc in action with Pyrrha Nikos made the woman cringe, as well as induce a headache."

Peach shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah… saw the kid when I was on my way back here… you've gotta wonder if he ever went to combat school, or… get _some_ kind of training, at least."

Ozpin gave the woman a slight grin. "So you know as well?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Peach replied with a smirk. That smirk slowly faded into a look of worry. "Still… I don't see why you'd let him do this, he could get hurt."

Ozpin looked rather confident. "The boy has more potential than others would give him credit for. Just give him a chance, and you'll see."

Still unsure, Peach gave a sigh, hoping that the Headmaster knew what he was doing. She then peaked over, looking at his scroll.

"So, how's the mini reaper doing?"

In response, Ozpin tapped the scroll, bringing up footage on the Heiress and the red-cloaked reaper.

"Let's see for ourselves."

…

"WEISS! TO YOUR LEFT!"

Weiss, in response to Ruby's warning, briefly saw a Beowolf leaping through the air towards her. She summoned a Glyph beneath her feet and jumped high into the air, leaving the Beowolf with nothing to hit but empty space.

Weiss landed on the ground behind the Beowolf, thrusting her sword into the back of the Grimm's neck, severing its spinal cord and killing it instantly. On instinct, she ducked down, avoiding an incoming swipe from another Beowolf. This time, while still close to the ground, she spun and sliced the Beowolf's legs off in one clean motion, before stabbing the point of her weapon right between its eyes.

Weiss rolled to the left, standing up again, this time seeing a few more Beowolves standing in the distance, looking ready to strike.

"I GOT THIS ONE!"

Ruby, using her Semblance, circled around the Beowolves. She quickly began to move closer to the Grimm, readying her scythe and, as she spun around them, continuously sliced them piece by piece. All the Beowolves could do was howl in agony as they were being killed piece by piece.

Ruby then came to a stop, looking behind her to see the fading pieces of Grimm behind her. She looked back at Weiss, giving her a slight grin.

"Told you we could handle them." She said, folding the Crescent Rose and sticking a fist in the air in victory.

"…" Weiss sheathed her sword and turned away from Ruby. "Let's just keep moving."

"Ack!" Ruby sounded, not liking that Weiss was ignoring her like that. "Oh come o-"

"Did you forget my rules already?" Weiss asked, stop taking a second to stop.

"I don't CARE about your RULES!" Ruby yelled back. "We're supposed to work together, but all you seem to care about is staying away from me!" Ruby pointed out. "Plus, if I did follow your rules, I'd be knocked out and blue in the face… actually that second part sounds kinda funny." Ruby said, the last part including a small laugh.

Weiss scowled at Ruby before turning away.

It was at this point hat Ruby was getting annoyed. "Weiss, okay I get that you don't like me, buy why do you have to be so mean?" she asked, now seriously wanting an explanation.

Weiss came to a halt, quickly turning around and glaring at Ruby with enough intensity to make Ruby feel the hatred, like a knife pressed against her forehead. The mini reaper, given her abilities, could feel the negativity radiating off of her as if it was pressing up against the reaper's skin.

"You want to know why?" Weiss started, her eyes narrowing in anger. "I studied hard. I trained hard. I put in more effort than any of you know to get here. And what do I get in return?" Weiss pointed at Ruby. "An immature CHILD who doesn't seem to even appreciate being here!"

At that, Ruby felt insulted. "I _am_ taking it seriously, Weiss. And I'm sorry if I've been acting childish, but-"

"But NOTHING!" Weiss yelled, making Ruby recoil from the sudden yell. "Stop wasting my time and let's move. When we're finished, why don't you go back to your mommy or something?"

"…"

At the sound of those words, all the enthusiasm, all the energy and readiness Ruby felt suddenly vanished. Slowly, she recalled times from her past. Times when she was happy, when all of the family were there…

Memories that now left her feeling sad and broken.

Weiss was silent as she waited for an answer from Ruby. After seeing nothing but Ruby's blank expression, the Heiress tilted her head to one side, a bit surprised to see the young girl suddenly go silent.

"What is with you?" Weiss asked. "Are you even-"

"We should move."

Ruby then began to walk forward, briskly moving past Weiss and pulling her hood up. The Heiress was surprised by this, and was slightly annoyed that the girl was suddenly taking the lead.

"Hey! Where are you going? HEY!" Weiss yelled, increasing her pace to catch up with her.

Ruby didn't respond to Weiss. Instead, she kept her head down as she moved, her hood hiding the tears that were rolling down her face.

She was overwhelmed with so much hurt, she wasn't able to notice the glowing red from her eyes

…

"So… You think we're getting close?"

"Guess so."

"... You… think it what we find is going to be cool?"

"Probably."

"..."

At the moment, Yang was struggling with what to say. Earlier, while she was fighting a couple of Ursa Grimm, she had managed to pummel the first, eagerly wanting to crack the skull of the second. But, before she could get the chance, the Grimm was cut down from behind, the culprit being the monochrome-clad girl. Granted, Yang didn't mind having her as her partner, given that she was a good fighter and showed to be happy to work together.

The problem was that she was so SILENT! Yang kept trying to make conversation, as Blake would show no sign of speaking unless it was to tell Yang to follow her. And when Yang did try to speak to her, she would only give short snippets for answers. It made the brawler rather uncomfortable.

As Blake stepped over a large tree root growing out from the ground, she turned her head, her eyes catching sight of a look of unease from Yang.

"Are you okay?" Blake asked, slightly bemused by this outgoing, adventurous girl's look of worry.

"Huh?" Yang sounded. "Me? Oh, I'm good, I just… well…" Yang scratched the back of her head. "… Why are you so silent?"

"What?" Blake asked.

"I mean, if you prefer the silence, I guess that's fine, but…" Yang paused as she tried to think of something else to say.

Blake, seeing the issue, nodded in understanding. "You're not a fan of silence, are you?" she asked, trying her best to surpass a grin when Yang wildly shook her hair. "… I guess that's fair. Should've told me that sooner." She added before continuing to walk on.

Yang quickly caught up with her. "So, you're okay with talking then?" she asked eagerly.

"Depends on what you want to talk about."

"Okay, huh…" Yang quickly tried to think of topics to talk about. "Umm… how about-"

"The ruins are up ahead." Blake quickly said.

At that, Yang felt defeated. She thought that she was getting close to starting an actual conversation with this girl, and now she just failed. As she walked on, her head hung in shame, Yang accidentally bumped into something. She raised her head, seeing that it was Blake she bumped into.

"Oh, sorry." Yang said. "I-"

"There is one thing." Blake said.

At this, Yang suddenly felt uplifted. "Yeah? What is it?"

"… What's… up with your sister?" she asked.

That question caught Yang off guard. "You mean Ruby? What about her?"

"Is she… how strong is she?"

"Oh." Yang said, afraid that Blake was going to ask something a bit… unsettling. But, she had no problem with people wondering how good a Huntress she was. "Well, she's pretty good with a scythe. She managed to take down a group of criminals the other day, nearly catching the guy in charge… the lousy snake." She answered. "Why do you ask?"

"…" Blake was a bit hesitant to answer, not really wanting to cause Yang any problems, and in case she accidentally revealed her own secret. But, she guessed that she owed her an answer.

"Before the entrance ceremony, Weiss Schnee was yelling at your sister. But, Ruby snapped back at her, seeming to make the Heiress frightened. Your sister… she seemed pretty scary then."

This piece of information surprised Yang. Ruby had always been quiet, not wanting to cause issues for others. Admittedly, it made it easier for bullies to mess with her, which angered Yang to no end. Granted, Ruby had no issue standing up for others, as she hated to see others getting hurt. It was unusual to hear Ruby sticking up for herself, even more so in an aggressive manner.

Blake saw a look of worry on Yang's face. "… I'm sorry if I-"

"No need to be sorry." Yang quickly said. "I'm happy that Ruby's standing up for herself, at least. Though…"

"Though?" Blake asked.

"… Nah, it's nothing." Yang said. "You said the ruins are up ahead?"

Blake nodded. "Yeah. Let's move." Blake said before moving ahead.

As Blake walked on, Yang stayed stationary, still feeling worry for her sister. She knew that there was something different with Ruby… but it might be more serious than she thought. What if…

"I hope Ruby's okay." Yang said, soon following Blake at a slower pace.

….

Ruby and Weiss were now walking uphill, the latter now struggling to keep up with the former.

After Weiss' rant, Ruby suddenly became a lot more silent, refusing to look in Weiss's direction, stopping only to look in different directions in hope of finding a new path. As they walked, Weiss was unable to figure out what had caused this change in the red-cloaked girl, but was too frustrated to be able to think clearly on the subject.

" _I swear, if I end up getting a bad grade because of her…_ " she thought, looking to one side briefly. She looked back, seeing that Ruby had come to another abrupt halt. Fortunately, Weiss was some distance away, so there was no fear of anyone crashing into anyone else.

Ruby looked to be as still as a statue, not looking around or anything. Weiss had forgotten her anger for a moment, now more curious about what was going on. This behavior was a bit too bizarre for her to ignore, and she felt she wouldn't get anywhere with anger clouding her judgement.

"What's wrong now?"

Ruby turned around, her head up revealing that beneath her hood her eyes were red and swollen with tears. The sight was quite surprising, being a stark contrast to what Weiss had seen before.

"… Why are you crying?" Weiss asked, now very uncomfortable. She had been in a couple of situations with people who had been emotional, and she had no idea how to help, or even talk to them.

Ruby forced a smile and wiped the tears away from her eyes. "I… sorry, I guess…" she took in a deep breath before speaking. "I got upset when you mentioned my mom."

"What? Why?" the Heiress asked. "Do you not get on?"

"…" Ruby looked like she was trying to hold in her emotions, as her lips trembled and her eyes threatened to water again. "… No… she… she died."

At that, Weiss felt shocked. Not only because this girl lost someone dear to her, but also because Weiss had unintentionally caused the girl pain through her deceased parent, a step even she considered too far. Immediately, she felt guilt swelling within her.

"... I… I'm sorry, I-"

"Don't worry." Ruby interrupted. "You didn't know… it's not something I like to talk about."

Ruby went to a nearby tree, resting her back against it before sliding down and was now seated. She pulled her legs in and wrapped her arms around them.

"… How did it happen?" Weiss asked, hoping she wasn't delving too deep.

Ruby was silent for a bit, more than likely trying to gather herself. But, she eventually answered her partner's question.

"She was a Huntress… she got a job to take down some Grimm and… and she never came back." She answered. "There was a search… the area she was supposed to be in looked rough… a fight definitely happened… but… she was never found."

As Ruby spoke, she looked to be on the verge of tears. Weiss suddenly felt the anger she felt towards her melt away, instead replaced with… 'understanding', as she could best describe it. From the sounds of things, she had a loving relationship with her mother. Weiss wouldn't say that she was as close with her parents, but she had an older sister that always looked out for her.

If something were to happen to her… the very idea already scaring Weiss to the core.

Weiss decided to sit down beside Ruby.

"I'm sorry." Weiss said to her. "It must have been difficult."

Ruby nodded. "Ever since that day… I realized the world wasn't like a fairy tale. There isn't always going to be someone to save the day… no hero to help those in need…" Ruby then pushed herself off the ground. "That's why I want to become a Huntress. I'll become that hero. I'll be the one to help those in need… so no one has to suffer like that."

"…"

Weiss sat in silence, inwardly surprised by this. There weren't many people who would suffer such a loss and be able to become so strong after it. If anything, it did make the girl seem… more admirable, for a lack of a better term.

"I see…" Weiss said, soon standing up as well. "In that case… you've a long way to go, haven't you?"

Ruby looked back and shrugged her shoulders. "you know what they say, 'Atlas wasn't built in a day', right?"

"Quite." Weiss answered. "… Just so we're clear…" Weiss gave Ruby a soft glare. "Unless you work hard to see this dream come alive, I still won't plan to waste my time working with you."

Hearing that lifted Ruby's spirits slightly. She was glad to hear that Weiss was willing to help her now. She stood up straight and saluted Weiss. "Many thanks."

"At ease." Weiss replied, her expression becoming blank as she looked around. "Now, how do we find the temple?"

Ruby looked around as well, hoping there was a clue somewhere. "Well, I guess we cou-GET DOWN!"

Ruby instantly pulled Weiss down, just managing to avoid a volley of giant, black feathers. They all struck the ground in perfect alignment, slicing through a number of trees in the process. When the volley ceased, Ruby and Weiss stood back up.

Weiss looked at the feathers in astonishment. "Those feathers… aren't they-"

"Up there!"

Ruby pointed up towards the sky, prompting Weiss to look at the focus of the former's attention. The Heiress was stunned when she saw what it was that attacked them.

"A Nevermore." Ruby said, wide-eyed with surprise. "A big on too."

"We need to leave!" Weiss yelled. "IF we don't it-"

"It's already coming here!" Ruby yelled back in alarm.

True to her word, the large Nevermore flew towards the two Huntresses in training, flying at the speed of a jet. Thinking quickly, Weiss was about to use her weapon to summon a wall of ice. Before she could, though, Ruby shoved her harshly to the side and unfolded her scythe, holding it i#out like a shield.

Weiss stopped stumbling and turned, just in time to see the Nevermore crash into the mini reaper.

"RUBY!" Weiss yelled. "ARE YOU O… kay…?"

Weiss was once more stunned when she saw the Nevermore flapping its wings, but not moving an inch. It looked like it was struggling to be pushing against something. But the only thing that it seemed to come in contact was…

Weiss looked to the head of the Nevermore, seeing the black and scarlet clad Huntress successfully pushing against the giant crow-like Grimm.

"Dream on… BIRDIE!" Ruby said with a strained voice, before giving one last shoved and successfully pushing the Nevermore away to a safe distance. Ruby spun the scythe and had the top of the weapon pointed behind, firing a shot the propelled her towards the Grimm. She spun forward, reminiscent of a buzz-saw, and slashed against the Grimm's bone mask.

The scythe only bounced off the mask, forcing Ruby to spin back briefly. When the Huntress in training saw the Nevermore trying to swipe its wing towards her, he used her Semblance and dashed under the wing, landing by its foot, where Ruby hooked her scythe around it's leg and fired another shot, the recoil proving strong enough to help slice clean through the Nevermore's leg.

As the Grimm screeched in pain, Ruby dashed away, standing some distance away from the Grimm, looking ready to attack again.

As Ruby fought, Weiss was stunned at how well Ruby was handling herself. There weren't many Huntresses or Huntsmen that could hold their own against a Grimm that size. And yet, there was a girl before her that was going just that.

Ruby turned back towards Weiss. " **WEISS!** "

The Heiress didn't notice the sudden distortion in Ruby's voice. She was distracted when she saw her partner's eyes suddenly turn blood red, with the whites of her eyes becoming midnight black.

"… Wha… how are…"

Weiss's startled expression was enough to tell Ruby of her mistake. Managing to calm herself down, her eyes and voice returned to normal.

"Weiss, listen! When I tell you to, I need you to grab my hand!" Ruby exclaimed.

"I…, uh, yes! I got it!" she said, putting what she saw in the back of her mind for the time being.

Ruby looked back at the Grimm, converting her scythe into its firearm form. She fired numerous rounds at the Grimm, which did nothing but add to the Grimm's anger and irritation. Now losing its patience, the Grimm outstretched both its wings, preparing to take flight.

Ruby folded her scythe and held a hand out to Weiss. Take my hand!" she yelled.

Without hesitation, or certainty for that matter, Weiss latched onto Ruby's hand with her own.

"So now WhaAAAAAAAHH!"

Ruby used her Semblance, dashing towards the Nevermore with a screaming Weiss in tow. Ruby landed on the Grimm's back and held on tightly to its feathers, just as the Nevermore took off high into the sky.

"ARE YOU INSANE!" Weiss cried, having looked down at the now distant ground, realizing what Ruby did. "ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED!?"

Ruby looked back at Weiss, giving her an optimistic grin. "We can get a better view of the forest this way! We'll find the ruins in no time, don't worry!"

"Oh I am SO far beyond worry!" Weiss roared in anger.

"… In a good way!?" Ruby asked.

"NO! IN A BAD WAY! IN A VERY BAD WAY!" Weiss answered back in anger.

Without any option left, the two of the continued to fly on the Nevermore's back, trying their best to look at the ground in hope of finding the ruins.

…

Yang and Blake came across a cliff-side, overlooking a set of old ruins. The place looked like it hadn't been seen to in a long while.

Yang looked towards the ruins before looking at Blake. "You think this is the place?" she asked, to which Blake responded with a nodded.

Both jumped down, walking up to a set of pillars all aligned in a circle. Each pillar had…

"Chess pieces?" Blake asked, looking surprised.

Yang looked at the pillars, seeing that some of them had vacant spots. "Looks like we weren't the first ones here." She noted. "… What do we do now?"

"I guess we just pick one." Blake answered.

Yang scanned the selection available to them. Her eyes then came across a white knight piece, followed by her picking the piece off its pillar.

"How about a cute little pony?" Yang asked, holding the piece up for Blake to see.

Blake grinned at how Yang was acting. "Sure." She answered.

Yang pocketed the piece and walked up to Blake. "Well that was easy." She said.

"Well it's not like this place is hard to find."

Yang then walked away from Blake towards the forest, holding her hand over her eyes like a visor as she tried to look in between the trees.

"Think anymore of them will come soon?" Yang asked.

"Looking for some more competition to beat up?" Blake asked, sending Yang another grin.

"No… well, not entirely." Yang answered. "Kinda worried about Ruby, though."

Blake tried to hold in a laugh she felt coming before speaking. "You don't have to be worried for her twenty-four seven, you know." Blake pointed out. "I'm pretty sure she can handle her own."

"A big sister's allowed to worry about her little sister, right?" Yang asked innocently. She then took a one eighty, looking furious and ready to tear something to shreds. "Though if something happens to her, I'm gonna make sure that the idiot responsible pays, Grimm OR Person!"

"…" Blake stared at her partner with a deadpanned expression. She was about to say something when I high-pitched shriek suddenly filled the air, making both girls look up into the air in alarm.

"Blake! Did you hear that? Some girl's in trouble!" Yang exclaimed, concerned for another human's safety.

"…" Blake hadn't heard her. Instead, her attention was focused on the unusual sight that was occurring in the sky.

…

"WEEEIIIISSSS!" Ruby yelled at her partner. "I THINK I SEE THE RUINS!"

"I SEE THEM TOO!" she yelled back.

Ruby and Weiss had been flying on the Grimm's back for some time. Weiss felt like she was going to get sick, but Ruby was able to focus on the task of finding the ruins.

Luckily, both of them had been able to spot the ruins eventually, much to the relief of Weiss and her stomach.

"OKAY, WHEN I SAY JUMP, WE HEAD DOWN TO THE RUINS!"

"WHAT!? THERE'S NO WAY THAT YOU'RE THAT INSANE!"

Weiss looked up, only to see the spot where Ruby was clutching onto missing the mini reaper.

"OH YOU INSUFFERABLE LITTLE-"

…

Back on the ground Yang looked back at Blake, seeing her look up at the sky in bewilderment.

"Blake? Are you okay?" Yang asked, concerned for her partner. "I think we should-"

Blake interrupted Yang by pointing towards the sky. In confusion, Yang looked up, only to fully understand what had the monochrome girl in shock.

"HHEEEEEEAAADS UUUUUUUUPP!" Ruby yelled as she fell down from the sky at great speed. Had she been allowed to continue, she would've gotten severely hurt from the impact, even with her own enhancements. However, as fate would have it, something came flying from the side, colliding with Ruby at equal or greater force, sending both flying to the side into a bunch of trees.

After landing on a branch, Ruby, slightly stunned and disoriented, looked up to see what it was that had knocked into her.

"Jaune?" Ruby said towards the blond knight hanging upside down from his own branch.

"Hey Ruby." Jaune said in a defeated tone.

Back with Blake and Yang, the two looked at where they saw Ruby fly towards.

"Did your sister just fall out of the sky?" Blake asked in surprise.

"… I…" Yang looked like she was still trying to process when she saw. Before she could, she heard the sound of an Ursa roaring in the distance. she and Blake looked to see an oncoming Ursa, flailing its paws around in answer. Before it could do anything else, a blast of pink lightning appeared from behind, killing the Grimm instantly.

"YEE-HAAAAW! Came a voice from behind as the Ursa collapsed, it's apparent attacker and rider rolling off from its back.

Nora, the hyperactive girl from this morning, looked behind her and saw that the Ursa had been felled.

"Aww." She said in disappointment. "It's broken."

Appearing behind the Grimm was her friend Ren, who looked to be out of breath. More than likely he chased after his friend so as to ensure she wasn't hurt.

"Nora… please… don't ever do that again." He begged, only to look up and see that the girl had disappeared.

Nora was at the set of columns, seeing a white rook piece that took her interest. She picked it up and began to sing.

" _I'M Queen of the CASTLE! I'M Queen of the CASTLE!"_

"NORA!" Ren yelled.

Nora grinned giddily before answering her partner. "Coming Ren!" she said before dashing towards him.

"Did that girl just ride in here on an Ursa?" Blake asked, just as stunned as before.

"I…" Yang said again.

One again, however, her thought processing was interrupted when she heard the sound of crashing tress from the side. All looked to see Pyrrha running out from the trees, followed by a huge scorpion-like Grimm. A Deathstalker.

Pyrrha looked around, looking for her partner. "Jaune!" she called out.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune cried out in response. He looked to the side, seeing Ruby leap off of her branch. "RUBY!" he yelled, wishing she had helped him out of his predicament.

Ruby landed with a roll, looking up to see Yang standing right by her.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled happily.

"Yang!" Ruby yelled, equally happy.

"NORA!" the orange-haired girl said, appearing between the two sisters just as they were about to hug.

Pyrrha continued to run, jumping up in the air to narrowly avoid the claws of the Deathstalker swiping her to the side.

"Did that girl run all the way here with a Deathstalker on her tail?" Blake asked.

"I've **HAD IT!** " Yang yelled, unable to cope with the sudden random scenarios. "Can EVERYONE just chill out for, like, TWO SECONDS!?"

As requested, Yang and the rest of the gathered teens stood in silence in two seconds, before Ruby looked up at another issue before, or rather, _above_ them.

"Uh, Yang?" Ruby said to her sister, who face-palmed in pure annoyance.

Weiss, still clutching onto the Nevermore's back, looked back down towards the rest of the initiates.

"HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME!?" Weiss yelled down at them, more specifically Ruby.

"I said jump." Ruby pointed out.

Blake looked up in concern. "She's gonna fall."

"She'll be fine." Ruby reassured.

"Aaaaand, she's falling." Ren noted.

At that, Ruby instantly panicked, worried for the Heiress's safety. She turned to Yang.

"Yang! Give me a boost!" Ruby requested.

Yang nodded and grabbed Ruby by the arm, She them spun her sister around in circles, force=ing the other initiates to back away to avoid getting hit. Before anyone could ask what on earth was going on, Yang released her grip, sending Ruby flying towards the Heiress.

Ruby outstretched her hand and caught a flailing one from Weiss, who looked at Ruby in astonishment.

"Are you CRAZY!?" Weiss asked. "You'll get us both KILLED!"

Ruby sent a grin towards Weiss. "You can than me later."

Before Weiss could ask what Ruby was talking about, Ruby pulled Weiss into a hug and activated her Semblance. Soon, a spiraling mass of red and white came gliding towards the ground at falling speed, pulling up at the last second. Ruby deactivated her Semblance, causing Weiss and Ruby to separate and tumble back towards the rest of the initiates.

"Ruby!" Yang cried, running towards her sister in worry.

Ruby and Weiss were able to get up, though the latter required a bit more help from the former. No sooner were they back on their feet did the Mistral Champion come flying past them, coming to a tumbling stop.

Ruby looked to where Pyrrha flew from, only to see the Deathstalker she was running from quickly skittering towards her.

"Well, looks like the whole gang's here." Yang said nervously as she stopped by Ruby's side. "Guess we can all die together."

"Not if I can help it."

Full of confidence, Ruby unfolded the Crescent Rose and dashed towards the Grimm. As she was ready to strike, she drew strength from her curse, her eyes becoming blood red, making her smirk of confidence looking more sadistic. She used her Semblance and dashed at the Deathstalker.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled in concern.

When Ruby was right in front of the Deathstalker, she struck it's head, only for the scythe to bounce off the bone armor. Quickly recovering, Ruby spun the scythe and used the recoil from a scythe shot to moved to its side, skidding underneath its pincers. Twirling her scythe, she sliced at one of its legs, successfully severing one leg of the Deathstalker.

Ruby grinned at her success. Sadly, it was short-lived, as her ears caught the sound of something coming down from above.

A barrage of feathers.

"Uh oh!" she exclaimed, using her Semblance to move away from the Deathstalker and avoid the feathers. When she thought that she had enough distance, she came to a stop, only for another feather to strike the ground right beside her.

Ruby looked back, seeing a screeching Deathstalker, despite losing a leg, moving rather quickly towards the mini-reaper. Ruby moved, only to be pulled back. She looked and saw that the feather had struck her cape, preventing her from moving.

Yang saw that her sister was pinned down, and moved to help her. "Hang on Ruby!" she cried, firing her gauntlets behind her and using the recoil to make her move more quickly. Yang was instead intercepted by another barrage of feathers from above, forcing her to move away, avoiding the continuous volley of feathers.

Ruby struggled to pull the cloak's cape free from the feather. She was impressed by how strong the material was, but found it annoying that it chose to work against her at this moment.

"C'mon. C'MON!" she roared.

Ruby then heard a noise close beside her. Suddenly feeling cold from fear, she looked to the side, seeing the Deathstalker right in front of her.

"No… no, non, NO!" Ruby cried, still trying to pull the cape free.

The Deathstalker raised its stinger, ready to end the young Huntress.

' _I can't go like this… I have to get through this… I have to fulfill my dream!_ '

The stinger then came down. As it did, time seemed to slow down for Ruby. She realized that she had a choice. Either she could let that Grimm end everything she had worked so hard to achieve, to let it take her away from those she knew and care for…

Or…

Ruby's eyes took on their dark form again, only this time black veins were appearing around her eyes. As he anger rose, the red of her eyes glowed, revealing a terrifying ferocity.

' _ **I won't let it end… it's time the Grimm knew what it meant to feel fear!**_ '

 **Alright, that's this chapter done. While i have you there, I have three things I want to let you all know.**

 **1: I'm going to work on some of the other stories that i have that i've been neglecting. I'll be starting with 'Sky Havoc in Remnant', for sure this time, but if there's any other story you want me to get back to, let me know.**

 **2: After seeing Kingdom Hearts III (personally one of my favorites), I FINALLY got the inspiration to try 'Fairy Tail: Dark Void' at a different angle, a kind of Reboot maybe. The original will stay, of course, and feel free to say if you want me to continue and finish it. I'll do my best.**

 **3: Despite my irregular chapter uploads, i still have a fair few ideas floating around in my head. One of which i planned and wrote while i was working on this chapter. It's a crossover story between 'Legend of Korra' and 'Castlevania'. I'm thinking of calling it 'Republic City's Blessed Wind', but... I'm not sure it feels right. Let me know what you all think.**

 **Right, that's the few announcements. Don't worry, i won't forget this story. And for the few of you who have been wondering, you'll find out the 'true curse' part of Ruby's affliction in the next chapter. But, until then, it's time to sign off. See you all later and i hope you all have a great day. :-)**


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